Yesterday was our last day of filming, which I think went really well. This is probably because we had the dead line of having to be finished by the end of one period. I feel this helped our group as we were more motivated to finish on time, which we did 
. So, now whats needed to do is to finish editing the opening sequence.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/filmnetwork/films/p005f919
The short film I watched is called LeCheval 2.1 . This is one of the most random short films ever, but has quite a funny wee storyline! Although the film was very strange it used a lot of clever camera angles and had a wide range of camera shots. I found the reasonably humourous part of it was when you think the guy is coming to some sense of reality then goes off on another tangent and decides he’s a cow! The shots I thought were best was the very last one where the french dude just appears from among the cows and decides he must be a cow too, this shot has a side mid-shot of the man.
Today as we had to many constraints to film any of the opening we started to edit the footage we already had. Some constrains we came across was that connor one of the actors was off, so we had to go around and do a scene he wasn’t involved in. Once we had found that, we then came across the fact we couldn’t get a coat for filming (as it was in use), and since we never had that the film would not have continuity, so thats why we were editing.
I feel like we achieved a lot as we were all giving ideas of how the scenes should look. If one of us didnt think it looked right or had another idea, we took on their opinion and tried to go with what they said.
By editing today we came across scenes which we thought we had filmed but hadn’t, and also even though we took many takes of each seen we still found it difficult to find a clip which was right. Therefore we had to blend many takes together, to make the best we could. Today, all of us had a go of editing, well maybe me a little less because I don’t quite understand how to do it, but I am learning from the others in my group, and Mr Wallis, as he knows how to do those crazy wee tricks which we don’t, like put colour effects, and flashes ect.
Today was my second day of filming as I wasn’t able to take part in the filming yesterday, so if you need filled in on what happend then check out chloe’s blog ( http://blog.ea.argyll-bute.sch.uk/chloewood/) its the production 2nd filming post which you should check out.
Anyways, today I felt like we are on track and achieving quite a lot, and working well as a team. This is as we are all throughing ideas about in order to improve the scenes. To begin with we started of by filming me getting ready to leave my office by me putting my gloves on and getting the gun out the drawer, also I came up with an idea that when I was putting on my jacket it would wipe across the camera screen and act as a transition to cut between the two scenes.
I had quite a lot of fun today as Tristan and Connor were attempting to teach me how to walk like a guy this is in order for me to fufill my role in the scene, and I couldn’t quite get it so it was good that they had the patience to help me understand how to do it .
We also started doing our establishing shots, like ones of the corridors, and to start of with Chloe did a low angle shot of my leg’s walking past and then she panned round, to then follow me walking up the corridor. We also made sure that for each shot we took, that we took it many times so when it comes to editing we have a wide variety of shots to choose from.
Oh, and yesterday Tristan came up with a possible name for the film, Reason Unknown this is as yesterday when they were filming the shots of the peoples faces it had their dates of birth and also the possible reason for me killing them, and the next person that is on my wee list it says reason:unknown, so this then links back to the possible name for the film.
Today was our first proper day of filming. Yesterday we filmed the opening credits, but today we were told that the camera was shaky when we looked back on it, and that the picture was a bit out of focus. So, firstly we re-recorded them with a tripod to hold the camera in place and today we also double checked that it was in focus. While we were doing that Tristan was attempting to make the fake blood, but he couldn’t quite get the colour right, so there will be some more experimenting with that. Once we had done all that, we moved on to film like the last scene in our opening, where I was sitting in my office, and when the phone rings. We used a wide viriaty of shots, and made sure to use many close ups to keep the audience interested with them, such a the extreme close up of the side of my face, where the audience recognises that I am a female hitman, as I have rings on, and my nails painted to represent the fact I am a female. We also made sure that we took many takes of each shot so we would have a wide choice of shots to choose from when we get to editing the film, and also if some of them didn’t work out.
Today I felt that we achieved a lot, and we worked well in a team, as we didn’t really disagree with each other. We more gave ideas to help each other out on how to do things better. Chloe was an awesome camera women, as she knew what she was doing and how the shots were meant to look. Tristan was the director/ lighting and he was a  good director as he knew all the right places for the lighting, and he was good at telling people what to do(I mean this in the nicest way possible), Connor was also a lighting person, and he was helping to get all the props sorted, he helped out a lot as he reminded us that we could use the wee reflective thing, to help get more light, and if we never got that the lighting quality would not be as good.
So, here’s hoping the rest of the production goes as smoothly as today did :)Â
Today in class it was our first day of actual production. So, Mr Wallis gave us 15minutes to decide what we were going to do. So, in our production group:
Chloe managed to film our opening credits with lighting help from Tristan and Connor with the special effects, and the clips are now ready for editing. Connor also took photograph’s of us and others, from the class, for pictures in the pinboard scene. Once these photos were taken I uploaded them onto picassa, and edited them to make them the right size, and put them in black and white. Oh, while we were taken the pictures we decided to put the name font into serif, because it looks better.
We also made a check list, and made another list of props we need. So hopefully tomorrow we will remember the items we were meant to take in, therefore we can start to film properly tomorrow… fingers crossed.
The other day in class we started to watch a documentary on film noir. We got through two motifs/conventions of film noir before the bell:
Backround
The fillms were usually shot in Los Angeles. They were low budget films, which usually took about two weeks to film. The main plot was usually showing the darker nature of man, and normally people were set out to find the truth. Film Noir has been said to be a style rather than a genre, which the french created. The french also emmulated the style in the 1950s/1960s. The films were sometimes seen as communist, and down rated, so that meant that there was a smaller audience going to them. In film noir the characters are usually trying to find a new self, and most of them are attempting to go somewhere else. Furthermore, there is also a conspiracy of paranoia running through the narrative. It is also seen that ‘Touch Of Evil’ was the end of the film noir period. Lastly, in these films the violence provokes the action within the film, and the use of danger lets the audience know whats going to happen before the characters do.
Lighting
The lighting in the film noir style is a key aspect as it helps to create the moral or cultural codes in the film. Light and dark can evaporate through good use of lighting. Secondly, the director would usually spend more time with the actors rather than the lighting as it would be so simple yet effective to do and set up. The low key light would also create shadow of shadows. Aditionally, the film production company could probably save money too, as they wouldn’t have to pay for many extras as the shadows from the ligths could place as a whole croud. So - three extra’s shadows could then create a whole crowd(audience) for the film.
Femme Fetale
The femme fetales in the films were mostly the centre of attention, and more often than not the powerful, seductive, evil characters. They idea for them was taken from women out of the bible and from greek mythology, like ‘Pandora’s Box’. In film noir the femme fetales aren’t stopped by the males, yet in Neo Noir they are stopped. Women could also be seen or represented as out of place in such film styles like film noir. The femme fetale are menipulative to the male characters, and use blackmail against them. They are greedy as well. The females will also end up doing what ever they need to, to get what they want, like murder.
By watching this documentary I know have a stronger grasp of the film and neo noir concept.
Today was our last day of pre production so we really had to get everything sorted for going into the production stage. Today I felt that we got a lot done as we were really analysing our story board and adding to it the parts that were missing, like the close up shots. We also made a paragraph on what we wanted to happen during the scene like our plot. Futhermore, to help me understand what was happening in one of the scenes I didnt quite understand, so I got the boys to act it out to help me understand what was going on. We also took the pictures for sticking onto the clipboard, we need to put these onto the computer and edit them on picassa, to put them into black and white. We decided to put them in black and white so that when we put the red cross over them, the red will stand out more.Â
Oh, and if you want to see a full description of our scenes, then head to connors blog which is : http://blog.ea.argyll-bute.sch.uk/connorcampbell/. Hopefully it will be there.
Today in class we were told that our next double period would be our last day of pre-production, so as a group we were like, well we really need to get sorted. So, by knowing this it motivated us to move a bit faster.
Therefore, we decided to make further addaptions to our opening scene, as Mr Wallis looked over our story board and was trying to give us more parts to add to it to help it make sense, as some parts are missing on our story board.
The things we need to add is simple clues through the use of props, this will help add and create enigmas. We also thought at the end of doing an extreme close up of the hand picking up the phone, and this hand would possibly have rings on or nail varnish to leave the audience with the enigma of is this person a female?
Lastly, we need to add to the story board the close up shots we are going to have between each scene, as we seem to have missed them out…oops!
Plus we forgot to give the hit man a motive, so we think that we will give them the motif of getting a certain document, creating another enigma for the audience as they will wonder whats on this document? and why does the person want it?
The other day in media we watched two scenes out of the films, The Hitcher and The Lost Highway.
The scene from ‘The Hitcher’ that we watched was the opening one of it. By watching this our group got a better idea of how to work with what we have, as this opening basically uses just a car as its setting, and doesn’t really have that much props. So, as we may have a constraint for equipmen, this could help us out.
In ‘The Lost Highway’ we watched the scene from near the ending of it, though it could have been an opening to it. By watching this I got the a sense of different vibes you can get of simple facial expressions, and clever use of camera angles.