British Social Realism // Production Log Fifteen & Sixteen

Mock Exam Week

This week we had study leave due to the week consisting of mock exams in all of my A-level subjects. This meant that we were unable to continue filming until the last day of exams as ourselves and our actors were committed to revision. We filmed more bedroom scenes after our last exam with Jordan. These scenes were very easy to film as Jordan is very co-operative and willing to re-shoot and try different things. These were the last scenes we had to film and only consisted of less than 10 shots. We were really happy to finish filming, but have enjoyed the process and experience of creating this opening. We had one day of lessons on mock exam week so we uploaded our footage onto the iMac which took the majority of the lesson. This allowed us to be ready for the following week to edit our first draft. 

Editing

This week our main focus was editing as we have completed the filming process. We had uploaded all of our footage before our first lesson of editing meaning we were ready to start straight away. We edited fairly quickly as our shooting script was really easy to follow, so not filming in order of our shots was not a problem, and we knew what we wanted our opening to look like and consist of. We have edited in iMovie before, meaning so being familiar with the software had helped with editing, whereas with the new software LiveType we used to make our graphics, it took us a while to get used to it. I enjoyed editing with Nicole, as we were able to confer and decide whether we both liked the shot, whereas when working together before we had to edit separately. We both enjoyed editing the footage and were very happy with how the opening was coming together. I believe editing to be a strength between both me and my partner so we were able to make the edit precise so the opening has continuity. 

Once we had our first draft, we looked for music and decided on "Tomorrow" from the website: http://www.bensound.com/royalty-free-music

You can listen to our music here: 

http://www.bensound.com/royalty-free-music/track/tomorrow

We then added the music to our first draft on our second lesson editing, and thought it fit really well. It wasn't too dramatic and made the audience feel sympathy which is the atmosphere we planned to create. The music contrasts to the footage, as the rape scenes are extremely rough, whereas the music is quite soft with the occasional accent. The music really brings the opening together in an unexpected way. 

We then showed one of our teachers who gave us some feedback on our first draft. The only criticism he gave us was on one of our shots, where the rapist came out and took Becca away. He said it looked like the camera was waiting for it to happen and that a close up of him grabbing her is required to make the screen feel less empty when he takes her off camera. This was supported by our other teacher when we mentioned it so we thought of what we could do to add a close up of the grab and cut back to the original shot without re-filming. Nicole had the idea to crop the footage which worked well, and meant that the shots have continuity as we used the same footage for each cut. The picture shows an example of what the crop tool in iMovie looks like. This saved us re-filming, and looks better as we could edit more precisely with the same footage. 

One of our teachers also noted that our music seemed extremely loud on iMovie. She then played it to us using the school speakers and we could see that the music is too loud so she helped us reduce the volume. Where we added our full screen graphics there were jumps in the sound where you could hear background noise from the footage and then nothing. To make this flow easier, our teacher helped us copy the sound and place it on this shot so the shots flow together. She then helped us start adding graphics by rendering them in Final Cut Express. We are now at a stage where we need to add our super-imposed graphics. We are also awaiting feedback from our first draft and waiting to find out what a predicted mark would be.

What we plan to do next?

The next step for us would to be add our credits in Final Cut Express. We have never used Final Cut before therefore need to allow time to learn about the software and what we need to do. This is a vital part of finishing our British Social Realism opening.

We also need to find out our mark for our first draft and see what we can do to improve it in the time we have. Also, if we had time I would like to take a closer listen to our music, and see if we can edit more to the beat if possible, and see if we can make the accented parts of the song occur when the rape scenes occur. Apart from that, I am happy with our first draft, and don't think we need to change much for our final draft. The feedback we got from our teachers has already pointed out some areas that needed improving which we have improved and are happy with. 

British Social Realism // Production Log Twelve, Thirteen & Fourteen

Christmas Break
(19/12/14 - 05/01/15)

We are currently on christmas break. Our footage is all filmed near school and our actors are fellow students in our year group. These factors led to our decision of not filming over Christmas. Over christmas, we re-checked with our actors if they are available for certain dates, so we could start filming as soon as we got back to school and our regular schedule. Before breaking up from school we had already planned many aspects of production and researched our locations leaving not much left for us to do over the holidays. 

Credits
(05/01/15)

This week we made our credits in LiveType.  To the right you can see an example of the LiveType set-up. We have never used this software before so we were learning while making these credits so it was quite time consuming to start with. We decided to have a simple font, that is easy to read. We didn't want anything to complex and so we can ensure our audience will be able to see all our graphics. We opted for the colour white, with a black outline for our text as we wanted them to be super-imposed. We decided to use super-imposed graphics so that our audience do not lose interest in our opening. Also the only credits with a simple effect on it are "Film 4 presents," "an EN production" and then our main title, "Positive." This should make the credits more aesthetically pleasing to our audience. We did not want these on all our credits as they would have to be left on the screen to long to ensure the audience has seen them. The only credits that will be shown on a black screen is our production company and Film 4. We have also created a production logo to make our opening look professional. Simple credits  in either black or white that are super-imposed is conventional to British Social Realism films, which helps us show the theme of the film we are creating.

Filming

(05/01/15)

This week was our first week filming shots for our opening. We filmed twice this week. We organised the location of shots so we could film each location in one filming session rather than filming in order of our shooting script which would be extremely time consuming as we are filming our opening in a non-linear style. On our first day filming we filmed all of the bathroom shots and some of the bedroom shots which was both in the same house. The day was extremely successful as we managed to film more than what we thought we could. We are extremely happy with how the shots are turning out and the commitment of our chosen actors. The second day filming consisted of the alley way shots. We found this difficult as people were walking past, and we had to wait for perfect times to film. However we were very happy with how the scenes went and the rainy weather added to the atmosphere of the shots which we never planned. We filmed just before sunset, which created a nice light for these scenes, we didn't want it to be too dark as the audience wouldn't be able to see what is going on. 

After filming the majority of shots we started thinking about our plan, we have decided that we have given too much of the story away with our character Becca's father finding out about the pregnancy. Therefore we want to reconsider the opening sequence ending or add scenes to the begininng making it so the audience only see Becca finding out about the pregnancy and the flashbacks to the rape.

Filming so far has been very successful and next week we are planning to upload the footage and start editing. We are also going to start looking at suitable music, as we are yet to find something we think fits our theme and the tone of our opening. We want music that compliments our smash mouth opening. This may require having separate music, perhaps something quite sad and dark, for Becca waiting to find out her pregnancy results so the audience will empathise with her but then something quite aggressive or maybe a heartbeat sound effect for the flashbacks. 

Our Location Reccies

Alley Way

( Chadwell Heath Lane Alley)
This alley would be a good location to film our scene because it is very long and narrow which would create a very unsettling atmosphere at night for someone to walk down alone. The drawback of this location is that it is closed in so there is no where for the man to jump out from, he would have to be waiting at the end for her. 



(Christie Alley)
We find this alley is a better choice as it has a middle section which is not closed off, meaning there is a large space for the man to jump out at Becca and take her around the corner. It is still long and would still create the atmosphere we want in our film.

(Harvester Alley)
This alley is long and closed off, but the drawbacks are that it is off a main road and so a lot of background noise will be heard whereas we want it to be as remote as possible. Also, this alley is very busy as it is used as a cut through from the station, so it would be difficult to shoot Becca walking on her own with no one around. 

We are going to film our BSR film in the Christie Alley as we feel it is set out exactly as we planned our rape scene to be exactly denoted the way that this alley is set out. It is very local so will be easy to film and re-film if necessary. 

Bedroom
We have decided to film our bedroom scenes in this bedroom because we want the audience's first view of Becca to connote her as a girl who is still very much a child, she is young and innocent. This bedroom denotes exactly that, the teddy bears on the bed, the posters on the wall, the bed sheets, the bright yellow walls; it is not a grown up bedroom, it is made for a child. 



Bathroom

We have decided to film our bathroom scenes in the same persons house so we can re film any necessary footage easily all at once. This bathroom is well suited because it is small, and so seems more realistic in a British Social Realism film than a massive bathroom would. It is not heavily decorated, so all of the audience's attention will be on the actor, not what is going on around her.