Up until this point we were told to be coming up with ideas for our short films so that when we were eventually put into groups we could merge our ideas. In today's lesson, I was put into a group with 2 of my classmates Jake Clarke and Bradley Norman. However Jake was already set on working individually so I was happily in a duo with Bradley. I thought this was good because I knew Bradley would be compliant with my idea, as he had no ideas of his own, so I was free to work with my own narrative and direct while Bradley could just help out with paperwork and potentially star in it as I had him in mind for a bully character. I had 4 ideas a the time but only one was really thought out (Transcendent) the rest were really rushed and thought up on the spot. With Transcendent I thought I could play around with the visuals and that is what I led with in my pitch for Sujata.
28th February
Today was the first lesson where our groups were meant to discuss ideas and start pre production but Bradley didn't show up for lesson so I was left on my own to start on the script. I also began to think of a potential cast and completed the mood board for the film.
1st March
In today's lesson Bradley actually turned up to help me out with the script. While I did the script and the inspiration films while Bradley did our "Ideal casting" sheet but I already had our cast in mind.
5th March
In today's lesson me and Bradley discussed about meeting up the next day to dedicate it just towards pre-production. I further continued on working on the script where Bradley completed the risk assessment sheet.
6th March
Today was the day where me and Bradley met up. I picked him up from Wraysbury station at 1:30. When we arrived at my house we had lunch and started with pre production. I finished the script and production schedule. Bradley completed the costume/ props, Shooting script, Location considerations, casting and job roles. Finally we had organised our first filming day to be tomorrow where we planned to get both classroom scenes filmed and done. We also scheduled to film the whole day on our Friday off. Later in the evening I had called my friend James to potentially star as Raymond. He agreed and was all good to film both days. I also messaged my friend Anthony (Tony) to star as the lead. He didn't give a definite answer at the time.
7th March
Today I managed to finalise things with Tony for being the lead and even cast my fiend Cara for the character of the mum. Today was a half day so regardless of subjects, everyone finished at 12. I thought this was a perfect opportunity to get some extras for the classroom scenes. I filmed both of them in the space of half an hour which was the estimated shoot time as some people had places to be. I had arranged for Cara, James, Bradley and Tony all to film the next day. My aim was to get Scene; 1, 3, 4, 5, 9, 10, 11, 13 and the flashback segment for scene 14.
8th March
Bradley Acton (My Cameraman) arrived at 10 am to help me get things ready. Bradley Norman was supposed to also get here for 10 but instead arrived at 10:30. This was to get things ready for when the actors arrive at 11. In this time we managed to clear my desk for the first scen and me and Bradley A dug a fake grave in my front garden.
The props we took were:
- A prop knife
- A pot of Jam
9th March
Today I had planned to go to my cousins 18th birthday party. I thought this would be a good opportunity to get some transition footage for the party scene and entrusted Bradley A to get the footage.
10th March
This is the day where I reviewed the footage and realize the footage from the night before was unusable. This is where I realized that if I wanted to do a party scene, I had to do it right.
14th March
Today I filmed the date scene with Tony and Laura (Susan). Neither of them learnt their lines so I had to let them read off the script which I tried to conceal as much of it as possible using things like books and pencil cases. There was no chemistry between the characters nor did it come across as real. I couldn't risk recasting and didn't have enough time for re-shoots so I just bared with it. In the end I just thought to myself that the scene wasn't too long and I didn't have to worry about it.
15th March
Today me, Bradley, Matt, Lewis and Tony were supposed to come to the Arthur Jacobs nature reserve to film the final scene. However Tony canceled on us last minute and we had to improvise. We decided to use Jay as a stunt double for Tony and had to film at Manacroft Park instead. Because of the location change I couldn't get my camera or SD card and had to use Jake's camera and Matt's SD card. The scene was done quite rushed but seemed to have turned out good. When I reviewed the footage later at home the sound was all messed up as well as the footage having a green tint over it which I knew I had to edit in post. I knew I could never do a full re shoot as Matt and Lewis were only available that one day.
18th March
Today me, James and Tony managed to film the walk home scene which we were able to take our time with and get multiple camera shots with the same scene. At first I felt the scene turned out shorter than I would've liked as this scene was meant to show the friendship these characters shared. I got James and Tony to improvise a conversation for the scene. The topic at hand ended up with the subject of girls and the female anatomy. After an hour and a half of filming we called it a day. The lighting of the scene, I felt that it turned out very well giving the scene a warm glow with this friendship.
19th March
Today after college I re-shot some bits of the final scene with Tony and Bradley N just so I switch out some clips and get some dialogue that isn't ruined. This time I did use Bradley A's camera and my SD which meant it didn't have the tint nor sound errors.
20th March
Today I filmed the police flashback and the mum flashback with my sister. I later on did re shoots for scene 10 and 4.
22nd March
Today we filmed the party scene. I asked around college for people to be extras in the scene and manage to rally 6 extra people as well as the cast to be in it. In total that was 9 people to help me film a crowded party scene. At 4 o clock I met with Jay, Jake and Laura and gave them a lift to my house where we set up the scene and by the time we were done everyone else had arrived and we started shooting. We began by filming the crowd dancing just to get transition shots. I also focused in on some of the extras for this bit dancing separately. After I got some other types of shots like shots of bottles, people drinking and etc. Next we filmed all of Tony's bits including an improvised scene with Leon posing as a drunk person. I thought this improv was good as it showed Spike interact with other people. After this I filmed several clips of Jake dropping the bottle without breaking it. To ensure this we had Jay lying on the floor with pillows either side of him to catch it. Finally we ended it by filming Tony leaving and some extra clips of Bradley's character and the extras. The only things left to film at this point was scene 9 and the bottle smash.
23rd March
Today I went and reviewed all the footage I had captured so far and noticed some errors. To list a few:
- In scene 6 you can see the daytime in the windows when the scene is meant to be at night
- In the final flashback, Cara's foot can be seen during Raymond's and Brent's fight
- Bradley leaves the knife behind in the murder which from a story telling standpoint, isn't accurate.
- I had filmed a scene a scene of Bradley walking out for the 2nd classroom scene but he has a coat and hoodie on despite only wearing a t-shirt in the master shot meaning it was unusable
- In both classroom scenes some bags can be seen in the background still
- In the date scene the camera man laughs and it can be heard
- In the 1st classroom scene, Bradley switches seat
I began the editing process for my film and officially entered the post production stage. I began by doing the final scene as I knew it would be the longest to do. First I began by putting the clips together. I had to mute all the clips from Matt's SD and instead put music up to cover the noise. I took a break and looked up some effects I could do in Premiere Pro. One of them was Posterize Time which added a second layer of frames which could be adjusted to add a blurry effect. I used this on all the shots where Spike uses his powers. I also used an Emboss effect for the flashback scenes to give it a colourful black and white effect to make it obvious for the audience.
24th March
Today I edited together scene 3. This took quite a while as I had to combine the different shots I got. I also did scene 4 which also took a while as I laid it out like a montage with music and blinking effects to make it eye opening and catchy for the audience.
25th March
Today I edited scene 13 and scene 11. I never filmed scene 12 as I thought it didn't really contribute anything to the narrative. Both scenes were simple and easy enough to put together although I never ended up using the mum's flashback and decided not to use it for the police officer as the scenarios I filmed felt to surreal for their characters.
26th March
Today in class I manged to edit scene 10 and scene 1. Again both of these were easy enough to put together but in scene 1 I added a title card and music. I later used this music in scene 10 as well as an earthquake sound effect. I then sent these scenes to myself.
28th March.
Today I did both Classroom scenes which turned out OK apart from two big continuity errors concerning Bradley. In scene 2 he switches seats before getting up and nudging James and Tony. In scene 7 he suddenly appears to have a coat despite leaving class in a t-shirt29th March
Today I did scene 8 in class and after college filmed scene 9 with Tony and myself acting as the police officer. I made a last minute decision to make Tony perform a dance sequence before filming the actual scene. I thought this would add some comedic value as well as extending the scene. The scene was filmed fine but was a pain to set up the camera as we didn't have a camera man. When we got back to mine we filmed a short segment where spike is pretending to talk to Raymond on the phone after the party. I did this to help fill in the gaps. After Tony Left I edited both this scene and the party scene itself. I added music to both and cut them both to be set out like a montage. for the party scene specifically I added the posterize time effect for when he brings the bottle back up although it isn't as noticeable in the dark. I then put the whole film together ready for the next Thursday. I added title cards to specify the days in the film and even a credit sequence at the end.
2nd April
Today I smashed the bottle and filmed it after college for the party scene. This took 3 takes as it wouldn't break but I got their in the end. I reversed and slowed down the clip and added it into the film.
4th April
I presented the 1st draft of my film to the class and received feedback from my peers and my teacher. My teacher later sent me all the feedback on an email for me to refer too:
Hi Luke
Apologies for the late response but please see below the bullet points taken during the focus group screening of your film.
Feedback:
- Start from a black screen for a couple of seconds to allow audience to settle into film
- Mum’s scene is dark- lots of video gain/noise
- Title is great
- Music from title doesn’t fade
- Jump cut between class packing up
- Bike left in background of conversation scene
- Focus issues in conversation scene
- Context of conversation doesn’t suit characters- they should be talking about something nerdier
- Jump cut in dialogue ‘I don’t want to rule the world’
- Sound issues- plane going over conversation- jump cuts between shots
- Should we be able to hear music before party scene? If not, then transition needed to show day turn into night
- Bradley’s reaction to the alcohol pulls you from the film
- Music from the party starts too abruptly, it needs to fade in
- Girl that Bradley flirts with looks at camera
- Sound jumps all over the party scene- watch your levels
- Jake looks at the camera
- Sound cuts in party scene
- Have best friends’ voice on phone call (you don’t have to hear what he says, just have a voice to talk to)
- Coats and bags left in classroom
- Names for the film are bizzare
- Actors reading the scripts obviously in the classroom scene
- The class in the background move obviously in the shot reverse shot so that they’re behind each actor
- Lots of dodgy sound cuts throughout the entire film
- Camera work of dancing scene is too shaky
- Location of dancing doesn’t make sense (directional continuity) he shouldn’t walk from the lake, down a path and end up back at the lake
- Jump cut in police scene
- Title cards- odd choice for colour/font when this is not stylised anywhere else
- Colour of fight scene keeps changing from blue tones to warm tones- colour correct accordingly
- First punch in fight scene is excellent but then becomes too repetitive- add in other sfx here
- Dramatic changes in music levels- keep these clean
- Plane- sound cuts in and out during shot reverse shot
- Matt- cut on head maybe?
- Matt and Lewis disappear from background in the fight scene.
This should not only be used to help support your films’ improvement but should also feed into your production log and evaluation.
Kind Regards,
Sujata
I attended to all of these over my Easter break. When it came to the first scene I couldn't do anything about the video gain and brightening it only made it worse so I left it how it is. I faded the title music into the next scene but when it came to the jump cut I had to keep it in as after where I left it some of the extras began laughing and Bradley changed seats in-between shot. I changed as many shots around as I could in scene 3 so the bike was seen less in the background. This even included zooming in on a few shots. When going over the final bit of the conversation I ended up completely cutting out the last bit and adding a transition shot with James's line over the top. At this point in time I don't know what I can do to fix that plane in the background so for now I've left it. I also fixed the jump-cut by replacing the clip.
Between scene 5 and 6 there is now a transition shot of an outside light of the house with the party lights on at night. This is to transition the previous shot from day to night and to fade in the music properly. While I was at it I decided to add some music over Bradley opening the door to Spike and Raymond. I did it so as he opens the door, the volume increases and increases again when Spike and Raymond step into the house. The song I chose was "Monster" by Kanye West for some clear foreshadowing of the character. I fixed the majority of the sound problems in the party scene as well as add very quiet voices on the phone afterwards using James' lines in scene 3.
When it came to the coats and bag in the classroom scenes there was nothing I could really do about it. The same could be said for the actors reading the script in the date scene as it was their fault for not learning their few lines in the first place.
I fixed the order of clips in the body discovery scene so that its in chronological order. As for the title cards, I changed them all to white apart from the party scene 1 as the colours there match the aesthetic and stand out as a turning point of Spikes life.
In the final scene I changed the SFX and fixed all the sound problems. To add to this I colour corrected the best I could do the majority of the scene matches up until Spike pulls down the hood. I reverted it back to warm lighting to show that there is still some good in him. I couldn't address any of the Lewis and Matt situations as they weren't ever available for re-shoots.
2nd April
I put together my final film for submission the next day. Overall I had a lot of fun with this project and had a lot off stressful moments along the way but I truly believe this is the best I can submit with the footage I've filmed.
