Behind the Scene Shots

(cont...)

Locations Shots

1) Outside House (where bike scene chase took place)

2) On road (where first part of bike scene chase took place)

3) On road (also where bike scene took place)

Evidence for Jobs Completed

1) Music Soundtrack editing (in Garageband)

2) Actual film editing (in Sony Vegas Pro)

3) Sound Editing (in Audacity)

4) (VIDEO PROPERTIES)

Floor Plan/Set Designs

Costume and Props List

Costume List and Prop list

COSTUMES

PROPS

• black gloves
• black outfit/hood
• mask
• pyjamas
• school uniform
• everyday teenage girl outfits:

jeans, top, jacket, sneakers (for bike scene)

• more casual wear (for canvas scene)
• Dad’s clothes:

Chinos, white top (for waking up scene)

• bike 
• typewriter
• canvas
• cup of tea (?)
• timer
• mirror
• cheese and crackers

A house (mine) and its surrounding areas - just in general, the film setting will be around here because I believe it is very suitable for the type of film, it’s quiet because there is no road noise, so that won’t interfere with the audio.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(^some changes with the equipment list! ie scenes that were not filmed because the script changed, so no school uniform needed, or Dads clothes. INSTEAD:

• casual wear for grave scene (jeans, sneakers, chord trousers, smart shoes)
• flowers

Risk Assessment

Cast could be harmed filming on the roads for the outdoor shots of girl and chaser on bikes. In order to prevent this from happening we can choose a road where few, if any cars come down during the day, and possibly see if we can arrange for people to go around another way/have someone else stand by to look out.
Also, cast could be harmed by slipping down the stairs, especially during the chase scene inside the exterior of the house. In order to prevent this we can make sure there is plenty of room everywhere in the house so no one falls over on anything, and clear the stairs completely (because usually there is a lot of clutter!)

Call Sheet/Equipment List

The following screenshot is a list of items I needed for the 3 day shoot, as well as the people. The reason why I didn't require a call sheet specifically for crew members is because I shot the whole thing by myself! 

Although originally I started planning a film with a group of people (and we would all then act as individual members of the crew; i.e. I was the sound person, there was a cameraman, director, producer and editor); the original group decided to split off into smaller ones. This is the reason why I did not need to make a call sheet for crew members. 

Script

                                                                      DREAMS

OVERVIEW:

ADVENTURE FILM

The film is based around a girl who has a series of dreams, and it is unclear at first what is reality. The story begins with her in bed, it is dark and she is sleeping. The shot is a wide framed zoom, slowly moving towards her face. She is restless. Cuts to a very very dark room. She is shouting, but is muffled. A hand on a window. Cuts again to a scene of her on a bicycle, slow motion, riding down a road. She looks happy. Cuts ‘raggedly’ again to the first dream - she sits up, vision is blurry, barely any light in the room. She goes downstairs to a typewriter. Camera deliberately hand held and shaky, to an angle as she walks down a corridor. Jump cuts as she progresses down. She is confused. She sits down at the typewriter and sees there is paper and ink in it. She types something. 

‘Hello.’

Nothing happens - then a whisper - ‘hello’

Close up of her eyes turning slowly around (suspense building).

She looks around, confused and scared.

She types

‘Who’s there?’

Nothing.

‘Who are you?’

Nothing.

She shouts ‘Danny is that you? Stop messing around!’

Nothing.

She narrows her eyes and looks around. There is no sign of anyone or anything, it is very quiet (and eerie).

On a moment of instinct, she looks back down at the typewriter and types ‘take me outside.’

Suddenly she finds herself outside, she opens her mouth and then closes it again. The weather isn’t good, it’s cold and she’s in her pyjamas. She is visually very shocked. She looks around; she’s definitely outside. She goes back in again and looks at the typewriter. It ‘looks’ at her’. She sits back down and types

‘make me a cup of tea.’

A cup of tea appears beside her. She is frightened but curious.

‘Who ARE you?’

Silence. But then

‘oh *characters name*, you know who I am’

She whips around fast (several angled shots of same whip) and sees a character in black standing by the 

door. She gasps-

(throughout scene it cuts back to the forever zooming in shot of her face as she lies in bed, gets more and more restless and frequent)

Cuts to gasp of her as she ‘wakes up’ again, back in bed. 

*********************************************************************************

                                                                  (cut out of movie)

She sits up very quickly and suddenly, rubbing her eyes. She gets out of bed and sees a sign on the wall

‘you have 60 seconds. put me up’.

She sees a canvas of a brightly lit city propped against the wall. She doesn’t understand what is going on; however she obeys and hesitantly goes to the canvas. There is a timer beeping loudly by it..

60..59..58…

She props it up and moves it slightly to the left – the picture is tilted, and she goes with it. At first it seems like she has just lost her balance – however it soon becomes apparent that when she tilts the picture, the room tilts with it. She is thrown against a wall, and still the timer is ticking. There is someone watching her from behind the door, the same figure as before. She turns around and it is gone (sees in mirror). She turns back and there is 20 seconds on the clock. She frantically tries to put the canvas up – she almost succeeds but it slips at the last minute and she is thrown across the room (tilt) and opens her mouth to scream and-
*********************************************************************************

Suddenly she is on a bike. She is riding down a lovely country rode, happy as can be. Something isn’t right though. Cuts back to her in bed. She hears birds tweeting but everything else is silent. She looks around frequently. There is somebody following her. She senses this and starts cycling very fast. There is a hot pursuit (although we only see the feet/hands of the other person). She pulls up outside her house, and recognising it runs in. Footsteps outside. She is very scared but determined to find out who it is. She peers over the edge of the table and sees the same man from the first dream with his back to her. She hides again, scared. He is dressed in black. She tries to run upstairs but he catches her. Cut to hand grabbing leg. Cut to hand raking up stairs. Cut to girl falling down stairs. Cut to leg scrabbling. Cut to girls face (reaction shot). She asks him terrified

‘who are you?!’

He takes down his hood (back to camera) and-

BLACK

Grave scene. 2 people walk to a grave, which we can only assume means that the girl died. Skips to figure in window. Pan to see girl cowering in corner, not actually dead - figure takes off hood, massive build of anticipation to find out who it is - but then it is a mask. Takes mask off mouth only and smiles evilly.

CUT TO BLACK

INT. LOCATION #1

CHARACTER 1:

Young girl, she is a teenager who has a Mum and Dad. She has a nice house in a village. She forgets what her Mum tells her and eats cheese before bed. She has quite a determined personality, not easily scared and she is strong.

CHARACTER 2:

The mystery man! He is not scary as such, just someone who frightens the girl. She never finds out who he was, and we don’t either. (There in order to provide us with a good chase scene and twist factor!)

----------------------------------------------------------------------

FIRST ENDING

‘Darling its school time!’ She wakes up and sees her Dad standing over her, smiling happily. She relaxes and says 

‘oh hi dad! Coming now.’

Her dad grins and walks out. Flashback to dream. She looks confused. She shakes it off and gets up. She is very happy that it is over and leaves, getting ready for school. She blurs and a figure is seen still watching her. Cuts back to her dreaming in bed and then goes fuzzy. Then cuts to her eating cheese and crackers before going to bed the previous night. Turns out she has had nightmares because of this. Cuts back to her remembering this the morning after in a flashback –she slaps her forehead comically. Turns to camera and says

‘Never eat cheese before bed’

Rationale

Dreams is a story about a girl who gets dreams confused with reality. It is a thriller, and the girl has no identity on purpose in order to bring across the confusion and lack of knowledge between the two states of mind. A figure haunts her in her ‘dreams’, one that she cannot escape. She has to run from him, but how will she know what is real and what is not? She has to decide what to do, and very quickly. She appears suddenly in various different scenarios, but how will she know if they are dreams.. or reality? 

(100 words)

Storyboards

Shot List

Film Schedule

(SCENE NUMBERS NOT ACCURATE)

Diary Entry 4

<-4.11.13

Filming Days

We were allowed to go out and film from the 7th to the 9th of October. I went and filmed with my sister, who acted as the main character in the film 'Dreams'. On the first day we went into school in the morning, collected the equipment, had a quick briefing and then went straight back home to start filming! (I needed Bella for the whole 3 days).

MONDAY:
On day 1 we filmed around my house, and then in the afternoon we went outside and filmed down a country road very nearby. We used a Canon 7D, 2 lenses (85mm and a zoom), steady cam, and external microphone attached to the camera. We made a few mistakes in the morning, purely because we forgot to bring the tripod! As a result the shots we got were more shaky than they probably should have been; however because that aspect of the film was meant to look handheld, it actually didn't look as bad as I feared. On day 1 we shot at approximately IOS 200, as I provided a lot of external lighting. We made up the sets with lots of lamps for inside, and luckily the weather was fine in the afternoon, the sun providing lots of natural light. We shot the whole film on a ready set setting, and they worked perfectly. The white balance was automatic and the resulting shots looked amazing and sharp. In the morning we shot the typewriter scene inside my kitchen, as well as the first scene of the film (the girl waking up). Half way through the morning we went outside to shoot a very quick scene that continues from the typewriter one. Then, after that took us all the way up to lunch, we went outside after and walked to a nearby road. Although the shots for this were good, it turned out we didn't actually need them in the end. Instead, I used shots we took on the Tuesday. Overall though, I think the filming that day went very well!

TUESDAY:
For tuesday, the early morning routine was much the same; we went into school after returning the equipment the previous afternoon, but this time before we left we were able to look at the shots we got on the Monday. We got exactly the same, except this time no steady cam and no zoom lens. I found this very helpful because I was able to see what looked good and what didn't, and then how to improve the not so good ones. Also, we remembered the tripod this time! In the morning on Tuesday after returning home, we shot more of the mini scene outside (however this time with a tripod so the scenes looked much better). Then we filmed a series of more mini scenes, this time with a different actor as well as Bella. I think they went very well, and we ran into no problems at all. However it also turned out that in the final edit I did not need all the footage that we filmed; the ones I have used though look very good! In the afternoon we also did the same thing, filming one very major scene that sadly didn't make it to the final edit, and more smaller ones (the ones we did film can be seen on the production sheet). The major scene was with a canvas, and took at least an hour and a half to perfect; however there just wasn't enough room to fit it in to the final film so I cut the whole thing, which was a great shame! We did film the final scene of the film in the afternoon though, and that turned out very well. For the majority of day 2 we stuck around the house and the garden, filming upstairs in a bedroom/kitchen. Then when we were done we returned the equipment again, however this time I came in a little later than 4:20, arriving at around 5 - luckily someone was still in the room!

WEDNESDAY:
Wednesday was probably the busiest day for the filming. We did exactly the same thing again in the morning, collecting the same equipment as Tuesday but this time again with the zoom lens. In the morning we left the house location and drove to a local church/graveyard to film some montage shots for the final minute of the film. I think these were some of the best shots we got out of the whole thing, the footage sharp and detailed. After that took a considerable amount of time, we drove back with all the equipment and shot last minute scenes that we forgot/had no time to do in the previous 2 days.
But, we ran into some issues just before lunch time with the camera/microphone, and realised that I very stupidly hadn't turning the mike on. After finding this out we very quickly went around with the camera (lens cap on) and filmed sound effects to make up for the lost audio. I think this went well and although I had done something stupid, we made up for it quickly and efficiently! After lunch we went outside to the same road as we filmed on, on Monday afternoon. These shots were meant to be a continuation from Monday, but as i said before, in the end I didn't use any of Mondays. This was also a main scene from the film, the bike chase one, and one that I had been looking forward to filming the most. After making sure the microphone was actually on (and it was), I took my 2 actors outside and we filmed for the whole afternoon on the bikes, and then the chase from the road to the house. The locations included the road, and inside the house. Then, finally, the final scene I shot was a handheld zoom on the mask the man wore the entire time.
'That's a rap!'.

EDITING:
We were able to edit the films in class for a long period of time after the filming had taken place. We got around 2 weeks of class time after the initial filming, and I came in a lot for extra sessions. (For example in all my free periods, and on a Wednesday afternoon when I didn't have my PE kit with me). These extra times were actually very very useful and I don't think i would have got nearly as much done so quickly if I didn't have them. I finished the edit just before half term, and worked on the soundtrack on my Mac book during the holidays. I used a different software to edit the film than everyone else, they using 'Adobe Premiere Pro' and I using 'Sony Vegas Pro'. It was very kind of my teacher to let me edit on the software I did, and I loved learning more about it! I used my other laptop to edit, keeping it locked at school when it wasn't in use. I think the editing went very well, I learnt a lot about what i was using and how to use it. I really enjoyed it, and am hoping to finish by the end of this week (16.11.13), but we have another week just incase i don't. I am mainly going to be working on the soundtrack/voice over, and when they are both done the whole project will be completely finished.

CONCLUSION:
Overall, I think that the 3 days went a lot better than I though it would go, and after sitting down and editing the whole thing together, I think they looked better than I originally thought as well. I had a lot of fun filming and I found the editing time we got to have in class very informative too! It was a great project to work on, and i hope to do similar things in the future.

Diary Entry 3

<- 20.9.13

A bigger change of plans has taken place! After going over the script I decided that what I had just wasn't long or good enough, and I certainly wasn't happy with it. So, I rewrote the script again and reconsidered the whole schedule. I have decided to start the whole film again with the 3 days that were originally provided for me to do so. I think that going out in the summer with the frame of mind that 'this footage is the final lot' was great practise for me though, it meant I didn't slack off and I was able to use the camera and film under pressure to get it done, just like I will have to in the real thing. It was a great experience, and I can't wait to do it again!
The new script is a horror with a little humour stuck in there. The concept of bikes is still incorporated into the idea, as well as the filming style. However I have decided I really like the idea of lot's of close up shots - it makes the film more intimate, and at times scarier.
It is called

Dreams

and is based around one character who has a series of dreams. I think that finally this idea is the one, and have written up a shot list already, that is nearly finished. I need to add illustrations to my storyboards, write up some more preparation and then hopefully very soon i will be ready to film. Although my organisation skills are rubbish, and I forgot the script a number of times, I have learnt from this experience in particular, about time keeping etc. It is a nightmare catching up on a months worth of work! However I did it, and now I will make sure to keep to a very strict schedule.

Diary Entry 2

< 9.9.13

From the 25th of July to now, I have done a lot of re planning etc, to do with the film ideas, locations and actors. Overall the idea has changed drastically since the first idea as I ran into a lot of problems before/on the day. I planned everything out before the 'shooting day', including where i would meet with the actors and the help we had. However, unfortunately although the weather forecast said it would stay dry all day in Brighton, it didn't stick to the predication and rained hard. This made it very hard to film outside in the locations that I wanted to, and so I had to change that aspect straight away. Also, we were a bit more pushed for time as I previously thought because the actors had to catch an earlier train in order to get home (it was essential that they had to be home in the evening). Overall, the day wasn't very good and I don't think I got as good a footage as I could have.

However, having reconsidered the whole idea, I quickly came up with a new script and set to work on this one. This was still in the holidays so I gave myself time to change what needed to be changed, write new storyboards, etc. I had a much better idea of what to do with this story and to be honest I think the idea is much more achievable, as the locations are much closer to where I live. I filmed a lot of footage over the holidays and decided on a name for the story -

'The Typerwriter'

However this might change if I can think of a better one! The idea, I think is a good one. However I may need to film more/definitely look over the footage/audio and see what I can keep and what I can delete straight away. The footage is good but again, I may need to shoot some more scenes if I am not entirely happy with the ones I have at the moment. I know the characters costume though and the continuity won't be a problem.

(camera on set)

Overall, I am quite confident with the way things are going and am hoping to stick to a schedule where I can do everything in comfortable time!
(Research on sound needs to be done.)

Diary Entry 1

< 25.6.12

To prepare, we watched several short films, such a very funny professional one. These were all to give us ideas for our own stories/films. I think that actually it was very successful in doing this and I immediately thought of several ideas that could possibly be put into action. We also discussed why 'the short film format is different from the full length film'. We came to the conclusion that short films HAVE to be quick and fast in order to keep up the pace, and more importantly keep the audiences attention. Also because they're so short (5 minutes really isn't a long time), we have to be able to get the gist of what's going on very quickly, so we don't confuse the audience.

My film idea varied between 2 different ones, but both of them involved the concept of using bikes. I really liked thinking about the various angles that a cameraman could use when a chase on bikes could happen. The bike idea was the main one, and at the time I really loved it. It was inspired originally from the television series 'Misfits', which is based in suburban London. Although there is only one scene in the whole TV series that involves bikes, I really loved how they filmed the chase. The colour scheme too, interested me a lot. The program mostly used greys, blacks, and browns. Although it was very gloomy (the saturation must be very turned down), I really liked how it looked on the screens. Because I'm working alone, I don't have a specific crew to work with, however I have talked to the actors I am planning on using and we have sorted out various things, such a suitable locations and props, etc.

I developed my idea by myself; although I potentially had a very good shot-list  I had no story line to base my idea around. At the moment, all it was, was an idea. I needed a plot. There were various things I could use, but the idea really needed developing so I could create a script and a storyboard, etc. However, when I talked about it with other people, I realised I didn't necessarily need to come up with a story. Instead, I chose a documentary style film, with a twist in itself. It would be a mocumentary. This idea appealed to me most because I think lots of ideas could be incorporated into one. Once the idea had been thought of, I immediately wanted to start on the script. I thought of a plot that involved my original idea, bikes as well, which is great.

We looked at how to format scripts in class too which was very helpful, and we were also given an example of one which helped a lot. I wrote my script in stages, but once I got going it wasn't different to continue, and when I paused it was easy to pick it up again. The script developed quickly, and I am proud of how quickly it got done. It's a great thing to create a structure of the film with. I have encountered no problems so far, except missing a week of school because I was ill, so I needed to catch up fairly quickly on the storyboarding.

100 Word Treatment and Influences for 5 Minute Film

I haven’t really had any ideas on what to do for this film; I had a few vague ideas like a scene involving a chase but no structure around that. The storyline could be a bike chase, etc, because I think if it was done right you could get some really interesting shots, ie underneath the bike/on the wheel. However I was thinking about something along the lines of something was stolen, there’s a chase to go and get it, and then it turns out that it wasn’t theirs anyway. Then they see something else that they ‘think’ is stolen and rides away to get that to. You could use some really interesting shots for a film like this, ie the camera underneath stairs and the bike flying over it. The TV program ‘Misfits’ inspired this, especially the colour scheme. It would be full of grays (quite dark) because it could add to the drama of the film, etc. 

I mostly thought about the camera shots and colour scheme for this short film!

(this is a scene from misfits - it's very suburban based and colourless)

(Because the clip I have used is from the official E4 Youtube page it won't let me embed it, but this is the link for the video)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPSS0A-IhNI

Film Crew Roles Mind Map (example)

Pre-production:  
"In pre-production every step of actually creating the film is carefully designed and planned. The production company is created and a production office established. The film is pre-visualized by the director, and may be storyboarded with the help of illustrators and concept artists. A production budget is drawn up to plan expenditures for the film. For major productions, insurance is procured to protect against accidents." - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filmmaking#Pre-production

Director: in pre-production, the director will be primarily responsible for the story telling, creative decisions and acting of the film. They have to organise everything before the film goes ahead onto the production period, and make sure everything is in place for the filming period.
Rest of the crew: for this time period, some crew members will not be hired until later on when they are needed, ie script supervisor.
However all the crew members that are already there need to be on their feet and ready to prepare for the times ahead before the film is put into action.

Production:
"The production of motion pictures and television films; the principal branch of cinematography. Film production takes place at motion-picture studios—enterprises that specialize in various types of films, such as feature motion pictures, documentaries, popular science films, educational films, and animated cartoons." - 
http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Film+Production

Director: for the production part of the film the director has to be a big part of the film and take part in it in a huge aspect. They need to be able to be on the ball on the time and prepared for anything that goes wrong/not to plan on the set.
Rest of the crew: more crew members are hired in this stage of the film, such as the property master, assistant directors, stills photographer, picture editor and sound editors. Every single member of the crew need to be on the ball to though, because they have to be prepared to fix things if something goes wrong. They need to be able to improvise.

Post production:
"In digital film, photography, television and film, post-production refers to the tasks that must be completed or executed after the filming or shooting ends. This includes tasks such as the editing of raw footage to cut scenes, insert transition effects, working with voice and sound actors, and dubbing, to name a few of the many pre-production tasks. Post-production is the third and final step in film creation.' - 
http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/P/post_production.html

Director: the director has to be around for the post production part of the film to, in order to supervise the editing of the raw footage, etc. They need to be able to tell the editors what they want, and if they have a problem they should be able to turn to him/her for help.
Rest of the crew: some of the crew for this part are not needed anymore, and so usually their jobs are done and finished. However members like the editors and sound effect people, that wouldn't have been around for the pre production, obviously have to be around for the post production. They need to be able to work well together for this final part of the film, in order to produce the best possible outcome of all the footage that the camera men captured.

Film Responsibilities Task

Things That Could Go Wrong On Shoot

Reverse Engineering

PREPARATION:
We got in to groups and decided as a team on a 1 minute extract of a film to study and then film, in the exact same way as it was originally filmed (same shots, same script, same-ish set, etc). We then got together the props for the extract - and our group chose a scene from 'The School of Rock' - so we needed things like a guitar, a drum kit, piano etc. Once we found a suitable room to film in, and collected all the suitable props, we started filming. Before we started though we had to write up a script to, and stage directions so we got the scene exactly right. We also had to write up a story board, and draw diagrams, etc along with the list of shots used. If there had been a soundtrack in the background to, we would have had to have used 'GarageBand' to create it, but because this scene didn't have one that wasn't necessary.

FILMING:
Once we started filming, however, it ran smoothly enough. We got through quite a lot of the scene, and the props proved to be very useful. We may have run into a bit of difficulties at some places, including the lighting being to bright, and we were missing some important scenes. However we went back again to film more, which went well.

PROBLEMS:
For example, one of the problems was that we had the camera set to 'automatic focus', so we couldn't change the depth of field for one particular shot. Once we realised this though, we went back again with the camera on the right setting, and filmed the scene again. It looked much better the second time.

EVALUATION: 
I think altogether the scene went quite well, but we needed to check certain things like the gain, which was to high and over exposed, and the white balance on the camera, as well as the continuity, (ie one shot will have someone wearing something, and then the next cut/shot, they'll be wearing something else). We did it well though and worked good together as a team - the shots were very similar to the official one, and although we went wrong in some places, and it definitely wasn't perfect, i think the result looks very good.


(Our version)

Depth of Field Test

We filmed a quick test for different depths of field, racking between 2 different objects.
A shallow depth of field means that the object in the background is blurry - 2.4 is what creates the shallow depth of field.

New Camera Shots/Racks/Settings

 This photo explains the different camera settings on the new ones that we tried out.

This picture shows the different rings on the front of the camera, and what they do.


















This picture shows what the camera settings were on when the coke can that we filmed was blurry in the background, and focused in the foreground. As you can see the F was 2.8 and it went up to around 2.9, and then back again. When it was at 2.9 the coke can in the background was focused and the coke can in the foreground was blurry.









This picture is just a quick diagram that we were given, that explains the different lenses and the sizes - the rings represent the 'aperture'.

FORMS, OPEN AND CLOSED styles of graphic composition

 OPEN FORMS tend to emphasise looser, less controlled positioning of elements in the frame as if they were unplanned, extending beyond the boundaries of the frame as though the camera just discovered them. Open form compositions are characteristic of documentary films, accounting for their reputation as being more realistic.





<-- This photo is an open form one.

<-- This photo is also an open form one.


CLOSED FORMS tend towards self-contained compositions carefully arranged to include everything of importance within the fram. 









<-- This photo is a closed form one.

<-- This photo is also a closed form one.