Filming

Today we filmed the scenes that we planned to at the actors house. It was quite challenging getting accustomed to the equipment again, but we made sure to check and double check the mise en scene to see if there was any unnecessary items present in the shots. I felt that we were able to convey meaning better with different camera angles than we were able to in the preliminary task. For example when the protagonist ('Kim') is walking down the stairs to open the front door we did a shot reverse shot of her looking in the mirror fixing her hair. This demonstrates voyeurism; as the camera is admiring her as she admires herself in the mirror and this thus emphasizes the portrayal of a conventional bubbly protagonist that we are trying to achieve.
Overall today was a productive filming day as we manage to achieve all that we planned to. We have scheduled to film again on Friday, in the meantime I am going to upload the 'outtake' pictures onto my website and take pictures of our storyboards ready for the animatic.

Friday 12th February 2010

Today our teacher informed us that we would be filming over the half-term. And so in light of this I have made more adjustments to our storyboards and arranged with Opal and the actors to start filming on Wednesday 17th February 2010.
I have also looked at my previous blog entries to remind myself of research into particular shot types and the ways in which they create meaning. So by the end of wednesday we should have filmed all of what we have planned for that day.

Main task planning

Since the last lesson I discussed with our teacher and decided for a better way to end our film. We decided that it would be best to end with the mystery antagonist dragging the protagonist's life-less body. We are going to experiment with low angles to convey connotations of the superiority of the antagonist.
And so today I edited my website simulation and changed the title of our film to 'The secret' I feel this is more appropriate as it reflects the mystery the viewer feels as the film ends on a cliffhanger.
I have completed my first evaluation question and plan to start the second question tomorrow.

Friday 21st January 2010

In today's lesson I printed out most of the work i had been doing on my website and My teacher and I went through it and after reviewing the mark scheme. I realized that my case studies were too long and so my teacher helped me cut them down. Overall she said it was good and I should make only a few adjustments. I have decided that I know enough information to start the first evaluation question as I am able to transfer some of my analysis of my case studies into my questions. Making comparisons to ideologies I obtained from certain films like 'The birds' and 'The eye' and how i adapted them to suit our film.
The preparation for the main task is nearly finish and next lesson I will ask the teacher about the most effective way to end our film in terms of camera angles to convey the most meaning. And by next lesson I would have made most of the necessary changes to my website simulation and would have started my first evaluation question.

Completion of Preliminary Task

Today I completed my preliminary task and finshed, Overall I am very happy with the outcome. I edited the sound and cropped and re-arranged shots. For the dead child character I slowed down the speed duration in that scene so that her speech becomes clearly distorted. This heightens tension within the viewer as they do not know what is going to happen next and it emphasises her vengeful and twisted character type.
I also with the help with my teacher was able to crop the microphone that was in the shot, I added transitions in order to emphasize the skill of continuity, the soundtrack had an excellent effect in correspondence to the scenes, as it had a very scary effect at the right moments and during the build up it had just the right effect.
Today I wrote the script for the characters and will give it too them on Monday so that they learn their lines for filming on Friday and Sunday.

second editing session

In Tuesday's lesson I edited our preliminary task for the second time. Whilst editing I became very critical and manage to point a few limitations. For example the lighting we used was too bright for the thriller genre and so I adjusted the brightness and contrast for each shot. This was so that dark and unsettling mood is instilled within the viewer. Also all though nothing was wrong with the last scene I slowed the pace down dramatically to get the effect of shock and suspense within the viewer. You identify with the character and feel scared and confused when the discovery of the painting is found.
Lastly I had to remove one shot so in order to make the film as close to the time limit as possible. In Friday's editing session I aim to shorten the length of the film a bit more and make lasting changes to the titles and transitions. By next lesson my preliminary task should be finished and for the Main task informed all actors and give them their scripts. Whilst continuing to update my website simulation.

Equipment list of what we will be using during our production

A handheld basic camera, a tripod to hold the camera when steady shots are needed.
And lastly a microphone and headphones