Main Task Development
As a group we talked about what we put as what worked well and what could have been impressed on our preliminary task. We decided that for the main task we need to:
1) Concentrate more when doing the product and not get distracted
2) Spend more time filming and planning
3) Not being afraid to re-do shots even if it means taking even more time and waiting for the perfect shot
4) Everyone takes part editing it together
5) Improve time management
6) More thought about and improved costumes, make-up and mise-en-scene
7) More time spent on creating natural effects
We decided that even though we all take part in doing different roles and contribute it would be useful to assign a role to everyone to make sure that everyone is included and has something to do. The roles are:
Catherine: Actress and photographer
Georgia: Chief director and behind the scenes runner
Akshay: Cameraman and chief editor
Myself: Main actress and sound producer
We have created a rough storyboard and have taken photos of locations to show each other which will help us develop our final storyboard. We have also looked at our timetables and marked out the 3 free periods that we all have together that we can spend as a full group in school.
1) Concentrate more when doing the product and not get distracted
2) Spend more time filming and planning
3) Not being afraid to re-do shots even if it means taking even more time and waiting for the perfect shot
4) Everyone takes part editing it together
5) Improve time management
6) More thought about and improved costumes, make-up and mise-en-scene
7) More time spent on creating natural effects
We decided that even though we all take part in doing different roles and contribute it would be useful to assign a role to everyone to make sure that everyone is included and has something to do. The roles are:
Catherine: Actress and photographer
Georgia: Chief director and behind the scenes runner
Akshay: Cameraman and chief editor
Myself: Main actress and sound producer
We have created a rough storyboard and have taken photos of locations to show each other which will help us develop our final storyboard. We have also looked at our timetables and marked out the 3 free periods that we all have together that we can spend as a full group in school.
We then developed that further into the final storyboard that included all the things like editing and the amount of seconds a shot should be. In total our opening is going to be about 2 minutes and 8 seconds. We also decided on what we need as a group and created a tick list of whether we can get what we need and then when it comes to the day of filming we can tick off if we have it or not. We also planned out costumes and locations. We decided on filming to 26th November between 2 and 5.
What we need for filming is:
the camera
the tripod
a white vest top
red/blue/white checkered pyjama bottoms
green checkered shirt
brown ankle slippers
black trousers
black long sleeve t-shirt
black shoes/socks
black gloves
orange t-shirt
black flower hair clip
a glass
a dvd case with our film in it
the dvd of the tv shopping advert
mother of pearl necklace
red contact lenses
What we need for filming is:
the camera
the tripod
a white vest top
red/blue/white checkered pyjama bottoms
green checkered shirt
brown ankle slippers
black trousers
black long sleeve t-shirt
black shoes/socks
black gloves
orange t-shirt
black flower hair clip
a glass
a dvd case with our film in it
the dvd of the tv shopping advert
mother of pearl necklace
red contact lenses
Idea Log
I discussed with Georgia how we could improve our ideas management because when it comes down to saying who's idea is what sometimes it's hard to remember who had the initial idea because in our group someone normally has an idea and we develop it further as a group having every ones input. We then came up with the idea of having a log book so when an idea is said we write down the idea and who came up with it. We decided that seeing as Georgia was director and runner, she will be in charge of the book. It is interesting to see that the first ideas were and how they developed and will help us when we come to evaluate our work, particularly as our group are all quite modest and would not like to forcefully say that an idea was our own.
When filming our main task Georgia brought a voice recorder that we set playing to record what we said which will make it easier to then log who came up with what idea.
When filming our main task Georgia brought a voice recorder that we set playing to record what we said which will make it easier to then log who came up with what idea.
Main Task Shopping Channel Advert
We wanted to have a shopping channel advert come on when the TV turns on to advertise the Mother of Pearl necklace to make the viewers clear that the necklace she gets 'choked' with is a Mother of Pearl necklace and also to make it seem more ironic how she becomes possessed. As it is in the mise-en-scene of our film we had to film it first so we could put it onto a DVD to play in the DVD player.
We went to the photography bit of the school so we could film it against a plain white background so the focus was on the necklace. Georgia was wearing the necklace and Akshay was the presentor. Georgia was modelling the necklace that appeared later and Akshay was trying to sell it to the audience. I filmed the advert and Catherine held up cards to promt Akshay with what he had to say.
We filmed the shot a few times to make sure we had a good one and we also filmed a close up of the necklace so that we could blend it in with the other footage to make it a smooth close up.
We went to the photography bit of the school so we could film it against a plain white background so the focus was on the necklace. Georgia was wearing the necklace and Akshay was the presentor. Georgia was modelling the necklace that appeared later and Akshay was trying to sell it to the audience. I filmed the advert and Catherine held up cards to promt Akshay with what he had to say.
We filmed the shot a few times to make sure we had a good one and we also filmed a close up of the necklace so that we could blend it in with the other footage to make it a smooth close up.
Pearl Countdown Filming
Me, Georgia and Catherine went to film Molly, Catherine's sister, who was going to play Pearl. She had just come home from school so she was in her school uniform which we thought looked really good as it shows she's young and looks innocent. The cardigan she was wearing is also green, which we thought looked good because it shows she's going to give someone bad luck as green represents bad luck.
We had Molly chant the countdown of; one, two, three, Emma I can see. Then; four, five, six, beware my tricks, while her eyes moved from left to right to follow me. Finally; seven, eight, nine, I'll watch you cry. We then edited them all together so that it was on the one DVD along with the DVD advert and a bit of buzzing so that it sounds like TV crackling.
We had Molly chant the countdown of; one, two, three, Emma I can see. Then; four, five, six, beware my tricks, while her eyes moved from left to right to follow me. Finally; seven, eight, nine, I'll watch you cry. We then edited them all together so that it was on the one DVD along with the DVD advert and a bit of buzzing so that it sounds like TV crackling.
Main Task Filming
We filmed our main task at the time we said and decided to go through what we wanted to do before and get all the mise-en-scene we wanted sorted out. When then filmed practice shots so that everyone knew what they were doing. After that we started on the actual filming. We came across a few problems. One was that the contacts we bought got stuck in some of the jars and as Catherine and myself weren't use to wearing them, our eyes watered so we couldn't wear them without blinking. To overcome this we put red eye make-up around Catherine's eyes and put a blood tear drop coming from my eye instead. Another problem was that the camera ran out of battery because it took longer than we thought to film, however we brought another camera with us just in case so we just used that. The final problem was that the sound on the DVD player didn't work after a while for some reason so we are going to edit it so that the sound syncs with the DVD player.
Music for our Main Task
As sound director it is my job to come up with music for our piece but as we do all the roles as a group we like to have everyones opinion. We spend a free period listening to different music. Georgia found a website that has loads of sounds on it and I had found some music at home. This consisted of Harry Potter music used in different parts of some of the films, with these if we used them we would use unrecognisable pieces. I also have a CD that my guitar teacher gave me with pieces on from a grade book to see how the pieces should be played. We listened to these and decided that none would be suitable. Finally we listen to a piece I composed in music in year 11 which was written for the horror genre. As a group we decided that we really liked some aspects of it and thought it would fit in well with our film. We also decided that we could always play some of the melodies that we want to fill on some of the gaps that this piece doesn't fill.
Editing
As a group we decided to edit together in the Mac Room. We picked a Mac and put all of the footage off the camera onto the Mac and began to edit. We took it in turns to be the one editing and for major decisions we were all present to comtribute our opinions. We sometimes went up all as one group but primarily took shifts depending on who had free periods and the time to do it and also on who was best for the job. I, being the sound director, did the most work on editing the sound into the film while Akshay, being the primary editor, did the most work on the footage editing. We all had a go at doing both and doing a fair bit of both though. I knew that editing was a long process but I was suprised at the time it took us to edit it all together and that is a good thing I learnt from this task. Thankfully we got all our footage done in one day and did it well in advance so we had time to take all the time we needed getting the editing perfect. We editing in text as well for our names and roles in what we did in the film.
