CHRISTMAS CLOSURE!

YAY, IT'S CHRIIIIIIISTMAS!!!
THIS BLOG WILL BE CLOSED FOR THE DURATION OF THE TWO-WEEK HOLIDAY!
MERRY XMAS!
:D

Final Shoot [Re-Shoot] Problem

Unfortunately we were not able to do our re-shoot last Saturday, as our actor was extremely ill. However, we have come up with a plan to either do it tomorrow or Thursday after school...as long as our actor is feeling better! We know we will not be able to shoot during the holidays so we must make sure we get the footage before the end of term! Fingers crossed he gets better soon!

Editing!

Thus far, the editing process has been okay...We have managed to put our sequence together [although we do need to re-shoot some parts!] and it looks pretty good! We're yet to add the titles and newspapers to the sequence [that can wait 'till after the holidays] but we've got the soundtrack and SFX in there. I would say that editing is not one of my strong points; I am fine when I am with other members of my group, but when left to my own devices, I do not feel confident enough to add titles and sound etc. To resolve this, I plan to sit down with the people in my group and watch how they do the titling; hopefully being able to contribute at some point! All in all, we still have quite a bit of work to do but are moving forward at a steady speed. Watch this space for more updates!

Second Shoot

Yesterday, we did our second shooting session! Everyone arrived promptly [shock, horror!] and we got down to business straight away. It was a very productive session - we were able to film every shot we needed; the shooting script was extremely helpful and we're so grateful we had more of a structure this time! We were lucky also because it was quite bright, therefore we didn't really need to use the Paglights for the first few shots [however, as it got darker we used them in the last two]. Because we were organised, we were able to complete the shots in fewer takes; allowing us to experiment a little with alternate angles and shots we came up with on the spot. I really like the idea of the character waking up from a nightmare in the morning, with the sound of explosions and gun-fire fading in as he tosses and turns [great thinking guys!] Next week, we have to film the News Report and any re-shoots. I am extremely happy with yesterday's shoot; the only thing that was a slight nuisance was the fact that we only have a small camera battery [which ran out during filming so we had to use the mains - good thing we were indoors!] ...Check out the Group Blog for a more detailed account and some pictures!

First Shoot!

We had our first real shoot yesterday!! I loved the test one, therefore I was really looking forward to this one! Because we wanted to shoot when it was a little darker, we arranged to meet at 12. Firstly we planned the script and implemented it into our storyboard; we then did a quick shooting list and then began filming. However, we only got through the bedroom, landing and living room shots - we didn't anticipate that some of the shots would take as long as they did [ARRGGGHHHH THE FEET!]. The footage was really good; the dark setting was really effective and I am extremely pleased with our progress. Now we have to plan for our kitchen and conversation on the phone shots, which we will be shooting next week. We also need to start gathering some poppies [we need LOADS!], and start designing our newspaper headlines. Got a busy week ahead, lots to do I'm sure; looking forward to it though! If the rest of our sessions are as good as yesterday's one then we're all set! Check the group blog for photos and things of that nature...

Test Shoot Sequence

After watching our edited Test Sequence, we realised that we're going to have to change quite a few things. Watching the opening footage was very useful because it meant that we were able to see what worked well, and what didn't work so well. It gave us a good insight into what our final sequence might look like and we now also know what to expect in terms of the process itself (planning, shooting and editing e.t.c.).

I am extremely glad we were able to test shoot so successfully. Even though we need to make some adjustments (details of which can be found on our group blog), our overall product was pretty good, which is always a positive sign!

TEST SHOOT!

Today we did our test shoot! Everyone arrived promptly (ahem BEN!) and we got to work straight away. We started wth my idea first, with Tanya and I taking it in turns to film the different shots in the storyboard while Ben acted in pretty much all of them. We next tried capturing some footage for Tanya's idea but soon came across a difficulty when we realised the garage was too cluttered to use...so we decided to go ahead with my idea; we knew we could film it easily and it would definitely be effective. We're on the way to developing the idea further (a new storyboard, detiled expansion of the killer's motive, extra dialogue in new scenes, etc)

I really enjoyed shooting today; it was a great new experience for me as I really got a feel for what an actual production day would be like. Though we did come across a few hiccups (like finding out we couldn't use the garage etc); but I guess that's what a test shoot is for!

...At least we weren't out in the cold all day :)