Tutorial and rough edit

In todays tutorial we had a look at varies rough edit from the second day shooting and looked through the footage from Saturday. As only three of use turned up to the shoot it was the first time that the rest of the group had seen the footage.

The edit that Valarie had done looked really good and the transition between cuts where really smooth. The edit was only about 5 minutes long but with the 2-minute piece and the final couple of scenes we had plenty of footage to make the 10-minute film. I really like the scene on the roundabout, I think the footage looks great and was edited to a really high standard. The shot I was too keen on was when we Louie walk to the swings, I just don’t think we need, the shot doesn’t look great and doesn’t add anything in the way of narrative, but apart from that the edit is really coming along.

We then had a look at the footage on Saturday, I was keen to see final scene with Louie and Hayley, as I think Louie felt a little uncomfortable. However I don’t think came across when watching the footage, which was good, It was clear that Louie was the stronger actor but considering the amount of problems we had trying to find the mum actor we where very grateful that she turned up.

We filmed the camera on two cameras, although the cameras where on the same setting the colour changes quite a bit, this is something we didn’t notice untill we reviewed the footage. The composition of the shots looks really good.  As we where filming off two cameras it was hard to find a place for me to record the sound, I ended up sitting in-between the tripods and boomed up wards, this wasn’t ideal but this was the closest I could get to the two actors where my microphone wasn’t dropping into shot.  

 We then quick talked about sound but I told them that there wasn’t much point in my starting the edit until I had a complete edit. Valarie said she would have one done before next weeks tutorial. Before leaving I got he footage of so I could spend the next couple of days syncing the dialogue.

Shoot Day 3

Last night we had a major problem as our mum became ill, and wasn’t well enough to act in our film. This was a major problem as she only told us 6 hours before we started filming. We couldn’t film any other time, as today was the last day that Louie was available. As soon as we found out we all did our best to try and find another actor who could play the role, I messaged loads of drama societies even ones outside Sheffield too. We original wanted an older actor but got to the point were we where pretty desperate, Ellie had also contacted lots of people on Star Now.

The final day only me, Beth and Kirean could make the shoot, before Louie arrived we all met up and talk about what we would do if we couldn’t find an actor, we would still hoping that one of the people on Star Now would contact Ellie. We still didn’t have a mum actor when Louie arrived about a couple of minutes a women called Hayley got back in contact in Ellie, she was a little younger then we first wanted but to be honest that didn’t matter as we had found an actor with pervious experience. 

When Louie arrived we quickly briefed him on the situation, how things hadn’t totally gone to plan and the shooting schedule for the day. We start filming pretty much straight away, although they where only three of use, it made things slight easier, on pervious shoots everyone contributed to how each scene should be filmed which is good but it takes a lot of time. When it was just the three of use, we worked a lot more efficiently. The first scene we filmed we only needed Louie, which was good, as the Mum actor wasn’t arriving till 2. The first scene we where just re filming some of the shots in our first shoot where we see Louie leaving the room, we now see Louie grab his coat before leaving, this was basically to help with continuity. This was the first shoot where I didn’t have any problems with the microphone, the sound was clear and we had sorted out the clapperboard issues that we had in previous shoots.

The mum arrived at 2 and we had just finished filming the scenes with Louie, before filming the last and possible the most important scene, we ran through the scrip a couple of times, where Louie and Haley could just go through they lines. When listening we decided to change one of Louise lines and get rid of another all together. I was happy with how it sounded, although I do think Louie felt a little bit uncomfortable.

We went up stairs and set up the lights, the first shot we filmed was the wide where we see Haley come into the room and sit down next to Louie, we had a bit of problem with lighting/positing as the room was so small Hayley was stepping over lights it was a bit of a struggle getting from one side of the room to another.  We did a couple of takes of Hayley just sitting down before we started to run through the scrip. They where a couple of mistakes but that was understandable as she had only just been given the script, after a couple of takes it become more natural and it didn’t look as awkward.  We filmed this scene using two cameras, one focusing on Louie and the other on Haley.

After we finished filming this scene we had a little break and moved the equipment downstairs for our three people interaction in the kitchen. It took a little while to sort out the logistic and work out where the cameras where going to be positioned as the arch way was very narrow and we couldn’t fit us and all the equipment in that small area. It didn’t help that it was getting dark and we only had an hour left before Louie was getting picked up. It was quite an awkward position to film, but I think we did our best considering. The rest of filming ran pretty 

smoothly but as we where running out of time we forgot about the clapperboard again which I new was going to be a pain in the edit.

Meeting before shoot day 3

Today we had our final meeting before our final shoot date on Saturday, we still didn’t have didn’t have a mum actor but we had a lot of interest in our add on Star Now.  The first couple of actors we initially contacted couldn’t do the day anymore but Ellie contacted someone who seemed really interested and had lots of acting experience. 

We then talked about equipment and when we was meeting to re decorate Ellie room, we planned to do that on Friday but I couldn’t make it as I was working. We had a quick look at the shooting schedule as there where a couple of shots we needed to re-film form the first shoot day, so we planned to shoot them first as the mum actor couldn't arrive until 2 and Louie was coming at 12. The third actor Liam who’s playing the role of the police officer couldn’t come till 4. With the actors all coming at different times it worked out quite well as they wouldn’t be waiting around and meant we weren’t rushing.

Review of Footage and Tutorial

Space walk 

 Today was the hand in our of final 2 minute piece that we uploaded to Vimeo and then talked about our plan for the 10 minute film. I think Chris was a little surprised that we had already started filming. It was the first time that I had seen any of the footage from Saturday, to be honest I was expecting the worst, although we worked well as a team we didn’t have much look with the weather and I really thought that we would have to re film.

Roundabout 

The footage we got in the second location at looked really good especially shots of the roundabout. The colours looked really crisp and vibrant, I was really happy with how these shots turned out.  

Getting stuck on the slide 

Sheffield skylin

The shot in the second location looked really good, the colours not as vibrant but still really nice.The shot when he's on the slide  really made laugh as Louie actually got stuck. 

The last location I was a little worried about as it was dark when we started filming. However it wasn’t as dark as I expected the silver space suit reflected a lot of light. Some of the shots looked a little grainy because we had to shoot in a high ISO. Valarie was adamant that she could make the shots work in the colour correction.