Sneak Previews

Character Profiles

As we were shooting throughout the day - we were continuously taking photos. Here are a few pictures to give you an insight to what exactly went on. 

Meet Lilly - Millie's sister - was quite a struggle getting her to act in that nightie

Reunited (happily) with the father who used to abuse her...

Heather, neatly positioned on the floor ready to film using the Flip,

Millie preparing herself for her great Swedish act.

Mollie outside using the Sony camcorder, 
filming the balcony shot from below.

Cigarette/Balcony shot.

We had certain difficulties filming the Goosebumps shot..

..the panning shot of the garden was particularly tricky too.

Our two actresses going home after a long day filming.

                                    

Shooting: day1

This is Millie - fully prepared for her first day of shooting. Appearance: Make-up is minimal - very pale pasty face, chapped lips, messy 'bed' hair, smudged eyes - all to create the effect she has been having many restless nights. The clothes she is wearing reflect her drab mood - a worn thick black jumper and a pair of old shorts with bare legs. 

After a long day of filming from 9am - 6pm, we have huge range of clips on both the Flip and Camcorder. We began by filming our little character Lilly (Millie's six year old sister) - filming with both cameras at different angles and perfecting the shot until around 'Take 20'. Mollie and myself then moved outside onto the decking to film the balcony shot of Millie, whilst Heather remained inside shooting close ups from where she was standing. We found shooting the 'goosebumps' shot extremely difficult, although Millie's legs were bare - the goosebumps took a very long time to appear and we were unable to get a perfect shot of this (this is one of the shots we will have to refilm). 

Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone

G321 Marking Criteria

G321 Marking Criteria

Friday 22nd - Smoking/ Swedish Practice inc. Outtakes

Flip Fun

A great proportion of this video we created was shot by 'panning' - this was ideal filming practice, as our opening will contain this for a good few seconds. A perhaps, lucky shot of a flee of birds at 9seconds, I think turned out beautifully (especially in the Black & White, which will be be using). At 32seconds, we included a moving credit which we learnt to do whilst playing about in iMovie and also finding various iMovie YouTube clips to help us out. Due to the fact we have chosen to include an underneath shot of a man's big boots in part of our opening - with a young child in front of him - we tried this out at around 2mins45seconds.

Preliminary Exercise

As a group, we decided to create our own reenactment of the famous Zoe and Kat scene in Eastenders. During this small 13 second clip, we managed to use a long track shot, an over the shoulder shot, a dolly shot and a face-to-face shot. After shooting the same thing around three times, we loaded the clips onto iMovie and began editing.

I personally love the bit which zooms into Mollie's face at 0.10 seconds - simply because her facial expression is so funny. However, after watching it over - it can be considered that the shot doesn't blend well enough into the previous shot. If done differently, we could perhaps do a slightly different shot when walking through the door instead of the typical long track shot. We may have also added a slight variation to the entire film by editing it with effects or maybe even the Eastender's soundtrack to finish it off.

Our First Edit

From this...



...to this

We had just recieved our Flip so Millie and myself decided to go outside for a little practise of a 'Panning Shot'. After uploading and editing it we come out with a Black & White clip of us both looking like we must be part of some sort of mental institution. (The music in the background didn't help).

Above is our very first attempt to film using the Flip - didn't quite work out as we hadn't tied the tripod on correctly!

Black & White Photography

Cigarette Shot -
captures the motion of the smoke,
we will perhaps have to slow down the
speed when editting

Bed Shot -
We have discussed having a bed shot where
our Swedish girl has time to collect her thoughts.
This image I found represents exactly how I
imagined to it to look on screen




Goosebumps Shot -
A perfect way to present the fear and
vulnerability of the girl. 
We intend on showing these Goosebumps
 perferrably on either her arm or legs

 

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

As part of our research, Mollie, Millie and myself had the opportunity to watch The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, as recommended by Miss Foster. It ties in fantastically with the language we will be using in our film opening - as the whole film is spoken in Swedish. The storyline itself is thrilling and at times, distressing to watch - the majority of parts involve graphic shots of abuse and torture, whilst Mickael and Lisbeth form a partnership in attempt to understand the reasons behind the forty year disappearance of Harriet.

When watching this film, I ensured I played special attention to the shots used. Much of these consisted of close ups - focusing particularly on Lisbeth's troubled face. These shots allowed us, as the audience to sympathise perhaps, with the experiences she was constantly reminded of (with her photogrpahic memory) and the ones she was yet to face. An idea our group had come up with before was to incorporate cigarettes into our opening - director, Niels Arden Oplev, also seemed to have had the same idea when producing his film as the effect of the cigarette smoke is exactly how we imagined ours to be.

Flashback Research

Our film will contain flashbacks, this I am hoping will work perfectly within the black and white tone of our film. Whilst browsing on YouTube, I found a video that I thought could have some influence in certain shots. I love the speed, lightening and melancholy captured in this five minute video. Constant repetitive flashing images of a light bulb, a car, lighter and a forest are shown. I was especially moved by 4:00, this is the last part of the video where an underneath shot is used to film the fast-moving motion of the sky. It brings about a sense of sadness and has a rather hypnotising element to it, which would be essential to incorporate in our own film. 

Our Pitch

Here we presented our proposal using Prezi, using few 
words and pictures we have created a general overview
on what we would like our film opening to be based on.

Media Pitch on Prezi

Questions for Presentation

1. Is your idea PRACTICALLY possible to film? (no speeding trains, sea battles etc)



Yes, we are set on Jade Hyde's house for our location and our plot is able to do.


2. Will it show off the strengths of EVERY member of your group?


Yes, our film will show off Millie's acting skills, my editing skills, Mollie's all round greatness and Heather's knowledge of photography angles, focus and framing.

3. Can it be storyboarded okay?


Yes, we have already thought of each shot and how it will impact the story. There will be lots of close ups so it will be easy to storyboard.


4. Is it something you can reasonably shoot and edit in the time available?


Yes, we can shoot the whole thing in one day as it's only in one location and we want to keep the continuity of the film.


5. Can you get access/permission to shoot in the chosen location at the chosen times?


Yes, Jade is one of our friends and her house is easy for us to access for shooting our film.


6. Would lighting/sound be an issue on location?


No, we will be using mostly natural light from her balcony and so we will shoot early in the morning to keep the melancholy style of the film.


7. Are you going to include dialogue? If so, can you do it on location or will you need to add it later?


Yes, our main character will get a phonecall in Swedish in which we will add in during the editing process. We will also include subtitles.


8. Who will be cast as your characters on screen? Are they reliable? Will continuity be an issue?


Millie will be our main character as she's part of the group she is very unlikely to let us down. We are also using her little sister for one scene and one of our friends (still undecided who) will play the father role.


9. Have you thought about style of credits and soundtrack?


Yes, we were looking into an artist I found on youtube to use as our soundtrack and seeing if the piece of music is copyrighted or not. Our credits will be in the pan shot of the house.

Introduction to Storyboards - Friday 1st Oct

Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone


Friday's lesson consisted of learning all about the preparation that goes before the filming - this includes, storyboards. A storyboard is essential when creating a film, as it displays a series of illustrations, labels and movement of the sequences within the film. We looked at a previous media student's Preliminary task and produced a storyboard for the first few seconds of their film. Once our group has finally decided on a genre and general idea for our film - we too will produce a storyboard.