Monday 28th February: Shoot day

 As Simon had delayed are casting, Adam was originally casted for the role of the Priest. But thankfully in the morning we went up to photography and spoken to Tom and he kindly agreed to star as the role of the Priest. With the casting all out of the way it was time to begin the day. I had purchased fake blood and are team had decided it was a good idea to splatter it across the apron of the murderer. We achieved this realistic look by getting a spoon and using the underside of it to press the fake blood across it. 

We started are morning going to the Lodge for the opening murder scene. Are shoot started at 10, so we took the time before hand to rehearse the stabbing scene. We experimented with different ways the victim falls to the ground and worked out a method on how to keep the door open when she opens the door. In order to keep it open we had someone stand behind the door out of frame, holding it open when it is opened. We spent an hour at the lodge and after are visit we went into the bus and drove to our church location, which was around 10 minutes. 

We parked outside near the church and we started to set up the camera for the shot of James interacting with Tom the dog walker and his journey from the lodge to the church. Here my team found the best road where he could walk down. In this instance it was a sloped road. We had to keep an eye out for ongoing traffic and had to keep an eye out for the fact that there was someone walking around with a bloodied apron and a bloodied fake knife. We successfully managed to shoot this scene with different perspective angles. We managed to use a dog for this scene as well and we had no complications which is also a positive. After spending around an hour shooting this scene, we went back to school to have lunch and pick up Tom, our Priest. 

After our meal we went back to the church and moved all are equipment into it. From here we filmed the scene where a villager is confessing to the Priest. We spent around half an hour filming her scene as it was her half day. After that, we proceeded to the ending scene where the killer confesses to the Priest. We experimented with many different camera angles. We also had lighting that we played around with to correctly light up the people. We spent around an hour and a bit in the church. 

Wednesday 23rd February 20

 In todays session we talked about what times we where going to shoot each scene. I also ordered some fake blood for the first scene. We paid a visit to the theatre department to have a look at a set of prop knifes. But we came to the conclusion that they looked too fake, so we are going to research a way to use a real knife on shoot day. 

We have finalised all the actors apart from Simon who is reluctant on giving us a final answer. 

Permission for filming in the Church

 In order to film in the church, we had to write for permission to film in the Church. Adam went through step by step what he was writing so that one day if we needed to write for permission to film somewhere, we would be able to structure an email to them.

They were kind enough to send us an email quickly granting us permission. 

Practical: Practise shoot with Audio: Wednesday 9th February

 In today's lesson we had a practise shoot using the microphone. We used a Sennheiser microphone and we used the audio cable to connect it to the BlackMagic camera. We then proceeded to make 3 short scenes.

The meaning of the lesson was to record footage with the microphone, so that we can edit and mix the audio in Premiere Pro.

Premiere Pro Basics - 7th Feb

In todays lesson, we went to the editing suite and I was rein-formed how to use the basics of Premiere pro. The clips we where using where from a previous lesson where we where told how to use the BlackMagic cameras. Firstly, he made us create bins and to drag the the final clips we where going to use into it. From here he made us shorten the clips to the length we wanted to use. A shortcut to get to this position is just to click on I when you have dragged your cursor in the top left box. From here you drag the frame you see into your timeline. We had to do this for every clip we where using. 

In the timeline, we used the razor tool, or just use the shortcut C, to cut up the clips. From here we where told to place and cut the four clips so they smoothly linked with the motion. For one of the clips that went on for to long, I started time remapping it to make it shorter, and I also key framed text in for the end. 

Meeting Thursday 3rd February: Draft Casting

In todays meeting we started to talk about who would be appropriate to act in our opening sequence. We had to make sure they looked like who they where playing and that they possibly would have the ability to talk in a convincing way.

This is what we have come up with so far:

The Killer:

Tom

James

Stu

 

 

Murder victim:

Zoe Case 

Iside Montaldo 

 

Villager:

Adam

 

Villager 2:

Claire 

 

Priest:

Lee

Simon

This is only in the drafting stages and this can all change. 

Meeting Tuesday 1st of February: Shot by shot analysis

 In today's lesson we came up with the shot by shot analysis of the Opening sequence. It was written by Cornelius and displays everything we have discussed. 

-Black void with title card

-Sound of signal Knock 

-Cut to medium low angle shot of murder standing In front of the door 

-He knocks a second time 

-door slowly opens

-the camera follows them as they move into the room

-He kills her and she falls on the ground 

-He knells down and says some final words to her

-Black void with title card

- wide shot of empty rural road 

-The killer walks into frame still holding his bloody knife 

-he walks around a corner

-close up of dogs eyes 

-sounds of dog growling 

-Cut to the eyes of the killer

-wide shit of villager with dog walking towards the killer

-cut to medium shot of villager 

-the villager greets the killer

-they walk past each other 

-Extreme wide shot of church in a Dutch angle 

-murder walking down towards church

-he puts down his weapon  

-cut to closeup of cross

-cut to wide shot showing the seating area and the altar the sunlight spotlights a bible 

-cut to wide shot of priest and someone who confesses to him

-cut to wide shot of the church entrance 

-cut to medium shot of church entrance

-slow motion

-the door opens and beacons of lights shine through the room as the camera moves in to a low angle 

-The killer enters 

-normal motion

-cut to medium shot of Villager who confesses (she seems frightened)

-the villager looks at the killer 

-the villager stands up

-cut to medium shot of the villager and the murder 

-they have a nice little chat 

-the villager leaves 

-cut to over the shoulder shot as the killer walks towards the altar and kneels down 

-the camera moves around him and closes in on his face

-he looks up

-eyeline match and cut to Jesus’s face 

-The killer starts confessing 

-cut to close up of the killers face 

-cut to low angle close up of the priest who forgives and thanks him for his sins 

-cut to medium shot that slowly moves into a extreme wide shot of them standing/kneeling In front of the altar

-cut to title card

Meeting Wednesday 2nd of February: Location and Actors

 In today's meeting we started talking about the actors for the first time. At the moment we need around 6 people: The victim (F), The murderer (M), Dog Walker (M/F), Passerby (M/F), Priest (M)

In order to make the film as real as possible we need to cast people who will be realistic and act like a professional Priest, etc. So up to this point we haven't casted anyone except for Adam who will be the Dog Walker.

Meeting Monday 1st February: Getting the Story Together

 In todays session, we started working on individual scenes. I am currently under the process of story boarding the opening scene of the opening title sequence. 

In this scene there will be a family out on the road walking into their house. From a distance, there will be a view from a persons point of view of them coming into the house. It then switches to inside the house where there is a loud knock on the door. The camera angle goes really low so you can only see the legs of this mother going to answer the door. The camera follows her to the door, she opens the door and you can hear the sound of someone getting stabbed. You then proceed in hearing and seeing the mother fall to the floor. This mysterious figure walks over the body and over to the children, here they are stabbed. 

This is all I have come up with at the moment, Cornelius is working on another scene and so is Pablo. I also did some research on location. I have found a National Trust Property and I researched the necessary permissions needed to film. But it is too early to fully decide on where it will be based.                              

Meeting 26th of January: Deciding the idea

In todays meeting with my group we tried to decide what idea we should do. The two ideas are 'The local Priest' which is Pablo's idea, and then there is Cornelius's idea called Family Function. We where informed that both ideas are doable so now its just down to what we like the best. We talked about more details about each one and we decided we should vote on it tomorrow. 

Meeting: 25th of January: Further discussing about Ideas

In todays group meeting we discussed about Pablo's idea and the previous idea of Cornelius's 'Family Function' which we had previously settled on. After listening through Pablo's idea for a second time, I thought it was in my opinion a better sequence to film, this might be partly due to it being a thriller and the 'Family Function' being a comedy. Tom who is an old alumni of Hurtwood and is a camera operator listened to both of these idea's and he said both of these are doable and that all we had to do now was to decide which one to do. He said that he liked the Priest idea more though over the 'Family Function'. With the group having a keen idea on what we want to do, hopefully tomorrow we will decide on it.

Old Text**********

It todays session we had a breakthrough in two of our decisions. Pablo and I thought that we should go back on his idea, as in our previous session we had agreed on Cornelius's idea. But upon rereading Pablo's story, I have decided it would be more interesting to make his idea about a Priest.  

Cornelius wasn't too keen on this quick turn of events, we could tell this by the fact that he looked sad. We reassured him though that this wasn't our final decision and he looked a tiny bit better. 

Tom who is an old alumni of Hurtwood and is a camera operator listened to both the idea's and he said cheerfully that they are both possible and all we had to do now was pick which one we wanted to make by next week. Knowing this information, we eagerly got back to work and argued in a friendly way on what the best option was for us. We have yet to decide but I think Pablo's idea is the best,

First Camera session

 In Friday's session, we started filming on the Blackmagic URSA mini. We got split into groups and we where instructed to film a simple shot of someone doing a simple thing. In this instance, we filmed someone tie their shoe laces. We filmed the scene around 5 times at different camera angles. We used the 180 degrees rule to place the camera around the actor. We had a wide shot, a close up shot, a side shot and a low close up shot. 

In next week's session we will be editing this to make it look fluent and into a scene that could be in a film. 

Getting Started With the Camera

In todays session we went down to the studio to learn about the camera and accessories we will be using to film our opening title sequences. 

Although I have used Cameras and Tripods in the past, I have learnt several things today that I will share with you in this blog post. 

The camera we used was a BlackMagic camera with a Nikon lens. To start off the lesson we had to get all the equipment out from their different bags. Once the tripod was out from the bag, we were told the easiest method for using the tripod is to unclip the bottom legs of the tripod first, as it will be easier down the line if you want to bring it even higher. Once the tripod was around the same height as my waist, we worked out that the front of the camera is where the spirit level was located. Knowing this information, we could fasten the tripod handle to the right side of the tripod. In order to fasten it you just had to turn it into place until it was fastened tight. The spirit level is a very useful tool that helps the camera become level, ensuring the footage isn't wonky. 

We soon found out that the camera is very heavy and expensive so we learnt about the 'mine''yours' rule. The rule basically means that when you're passing expensive equipment like the camera, you say yours and the person you're giving it too says mine. Only when the person says mine is when you can let go. This is a very useful rule as you don't want to be breaking any equipment 👍🏻. 

When you remove the lens cap, it is a smart idea to put it back into the bag and not into your pocket. Placing it into your pocket might result in your forgetting to put it back on, increasing the risk of breaking the equipment. 

The camera doesn't have an internal battery, so the battery just slides on into the back of the camera.

There is a camera mount on the camera, so all you need to do to fasten the camera onto the tripod is to slide the camera into place whilst holding down a button on the left side, after the camera is in place you fasten it by turn the switch on the right side. If there is a metal part hanging out on the mount, then all you need to do is slide it inside. You need to be careful about the camera falling off as a result of you not fastening it. And when you take it off, you need to be careful the lens doesn't smash into the tripod as a result of the camera having an off centre level of gravity. 

The Nikon lens has 2 twisty things, the end one manages zoom and the one closest to the camera manages focusing. We were taught that if you want to focus for a shot, you can zoom in to the object, in the case that it is a person, you zoom into their eye. Then you focus onto them to ensure everything is sharp, then you zoom out to the shot you want to capture. 

White balancing is used to ensure the video you are filming has the correct lighting conditions in it. As there are loads of different light types, colours appear different in different conditions. So by changing the White balance it can help you get the correct lighting. So for example as we where inside it is appropriate to use a white balance at around 3000k. But if we where shooting outside then filming at 6000 to 8000k would suit better. 

Exposure determines how much light is let into the camera. The dial to change exposure is right next to the lens removal button. It is blue and it can be very tough to turn. You need to pinch it with force to do it affectively. 

We then learn how to effectively dismantle everything, this is very self explanatory, all you need to do is do a reverse of what you did at the beginning. 

My Opening Title Sequence Idea

Shows a shot from above a man walking up stairs

Shot from below knee level of him walking up

Walking down corridor 

opening door from behind 

above shot of opening box 

Close up of taking gun out 

Close up of putting ammunition into gun 

Wide shot of going to the window 

Outside shot of target 

really close up of finger on trigger 

Close up of eyes 

Sound of door opening 

Wide shot of both figures in shot - Being the same people  

Theres a crowd in the streets, shot from behind 

Cuts to front in slow motion of them raising signs and shouting

Camera cuts to back of the group where they break into a government building

Cuts to pan shot of them walking through the door and down a corridor

From inside the end room you see them walking down into the room

Close up of all their faces in surprise 

Cuts to wide shot of the lab

Shot of them turning around to run out

Cuts to shot of corridor of man in it with dialogue "You shouldn't have done this"

Zoom in shot of their faces surprised. 

This is Cornelius's idea:

The concert / The egg front

-Black Screen with name of studio, start of Non diegetic soundtrack 

-medium shot of Jamie 

-Establishing wide shot of the empty stage

-Synchronous cut to stage shortly before a performance (the band is on stage except for the lead singer)

- Synchronous Cut to Jamie, she turns to the right.

-Eyeline match with empty corner of the stage 

-Synchronous cut to the same corner during the performance where a drum set is stationed 

-a medium shot introduces David who plays the drums

-cut to close up of drum

-cut to close up of David’s face as he focuses on the music 

- Synchronous Cut to Jamie, she turns to the left.

-wipe with hidden cut to the left

-wide shot of a empty corner of the stage

-Guitar starts playing as part of the soundtrack

- Synchronous Cut to the corner of the stage during performance revealing Madelyn playing the E-guitar 

-Close up of Madelyn smiling

-Close up of the guitar 

- Synchronous cut to medium shot of Jamie before the performance looking straight forward

-Close up of Jamie’s face smiling 

-wipe to empty stage (In centre frame are the curtain’s)

-Synchronous cut to the stage during the performance (In centre frame are the curtain’s)

-Jamie comes out of the curtains in an Egg costume

-Switch to hand healed camera

-The camera moves with Jamie while she walks synchronous to the beat across the stage and meets up with the band members 

-The camera comes closer to her face as she stands at the centre of the stage again while the now diegetic soundtrack climaxes, she starts singing the first note 

-Cut to a medium shot of Jamie the camera moves out in one continuous shot revealing the entire stage 

-Cut to title card and black screen, abrupt ending of music 

-cut to closeup of Jamie with her eyes closed 

-Jamie opens her eyes 

-Medium shot of Jamie seemingly disappointed that she is not performing (not in egg costume)

-Wide shot of the empty stage as Jamie walks away, highlighting that the performance was imaginary 

Family Function 

-A gimbal-shot starts out at Francesco’s face; he screams, the camera moves to a mid-shot reviling him sitting at a dining table.

-eyeline match and cut to a mid-shot of Sofia (his sister)

-She says, ‘Is that all you got you little f...’ before she finishes her sentence a non-diegetic orchestral soundtrack starts playing and the dialogue audio is muted. 

-cut to extreme wide shot revealing rest of family (who are all upset)

-cut to wide-shot of Francesco and Sofia leaning across the table, arguing 

-cut to medium shot of Luigi (The father) who is not amused 

-Cut to Medium shot of Regina (The mother) Regina stands up

-pan to wine closet Regina walks across frame with a wine glass 

-Cut to a medium shot of Kyle (Another sibling)

-Kyle shrugs benife the table 

-Cut to medium shot of Luigi

-Multiple fast pasted cuts between Luigi (who progressively gets angrier) and a medium shot of Francesco and Sofia arguing while the music gets more intense 

-Cut to medium shot of Luigi

-Tilt upwards as Luigi jumps up 

-Cut to Close up of Luigi´s profile

-blasted off from Luigi’s mouth Multiple drops of spit fly

-Cut to Extreme close up of single drop of spit flying through the air 

-Cut to close up of Sofia’s face as the spit lands on her face 

-Cut to close up of Francesco face as spit lands on his face

-Cut to medium shot of Kyle sitting underneath the table listening with headphones to music. The non-diegetic soundtrack stops. Muffled diegetic audio of the argument is audible in the background. A diegetic crunchy beat plays through Kyles headphones.

-Eyeline match cut to wide shot of Regina drinking at the wine closet

-Regina looks at Kyle 

-Cut to Medium shot of Regina

-Regina winks at Kyle 

-Eyeline match to close up of Kyle looking at their mother 

-Cut to Medium shot of Regina

-Regina grabs a wine bottle 

-Cut to wide shot of Regina rolling the bottle towards Kyle 

-Medium shot of Kyle 

-Kyle grabs the bottle and notes to their mother

-Cut to close up of Sofia’s face screaming, the non-diegetic orchestral soundtrack starts playing again and the diegetic audio is muted 

-tilt to close up of Francesco screaming 

-tilt to close up of Luigi screaming 

-Cut to Medium shot of Francesco and Sofia on opposite sides in focus, Luigi in center frame (not in focus)

-Francesco pushes Sofia, Sofia falls to the ground 

-Cut to medium shot of Sofia falling on the ground 

-Eyeline match and cut to medium of Kyle 

-Kyle is shocked 

-Eyeline match and cut to close up of Sofia on the ground 

-Eyeline match and cut to close up of Kyle 

-Kyle stops being shocked and seems to be determined 

-Cut to Wide shot of Kyle standing up 

-Cut to Medium shot of multiple gigantic bread sticks 

-Kyle grabs one 

-Cut to medium shot of Kyle holding the bread stick like a light saber 

-Cut to close up of Francesco’s shocked face

-Cut to Medium shot of multiple gigantic bread sticks 

-Francesco reaches over the table to grab a bread stick

-Cut to medium shot of Francesco holding the bread stick like a light saber 

-Cut to Extreme wide shot of Living room 

-Francesco and Kyle run towards each other in slow motion 

-Cut to shocked medium reaction shot of Sofia

-Cut to shocked close up reaction shot of Luigi

-Cut to medium shot of Regina pouring more vine in her cub 

-Cut to medium shot of Kyle and Francesco running towards each other 

-Fade to black as the music climaxes 

-Title card