Update on locations with imagery

The Ashdown Forest
We have chosen to film in the Ashdown Forest instead of Bedelands as it is a much larger place as it is a more appropriate setting, there is also fewer people there so we would not be disturbing anyone.

The Albemarle Centre
The gig venue is the Albemarle Centre which is near Oathall Community College. We chose this place because Jack's band has a gig there at an appropriate date so that we can film there.

     

Foundation Production: Editing Process

 During editing, we made a few changes to our initial ideas. First of all we started off editing in iMovie, this is where we arranged all the usable shots in order. These shots formed a rough cut of our thriller, however it was too long therefore we had to cut the sequence down.
  For the chase scene we had to increase the intensity to keep the audience interested, we did this by shortening the time between shots. As our selected footage was too long we had to make a big decision in getting rid of the dialogue scene in which the villain meets Jake's character and pulls out a gun on him. In the end we chose to show Jake's character being hit, the shot then ends with A point of view shot showing Jake's view looking up at the sky, this then fades out to simulate Jake's character losing consciousness.
 For the gig scene we chose to cut it right down to the point of just establishing the setting as a gig. One reasons for this was because the smoke appeared in only a few shots this meant that it would affect the continuity of the sequence.

After sorting out the movie sequence and getting a final rough cut, we then moved  the film to Final cut pro to add more detail and finishing touches to the sequence, for example titles and transitions, both titles and shots were added and eddited, we added in out titles and then also made some very small changes to our sequence, stuff like triming shot lengths etc.

Foundation Production Filming

Re-filming
As we had problems when filming we have decided to re-film a slection of shots that were not good enough to use in our thriller, this means that Jake will have to meet up with Dom this weekend to film in the Ashdown Forest.

Filming
We haven't filmed the bar scene yet but we are planning to film it on Sunday 6th March in the evening, we have found a different location to film this shot. Dani has asked her friend if we can film in her house because she has a bar that would suit our scene well.

We are attempting to get all of our filming done this weekend so we can meet the deadline on Friday 11th March.

Foundation production; Interviews on our production

In this video we interviewed a few randomly selected people and told them about our film. We asked them to give us some feedback on our film and this is what they said.

Foundation Production: Naming

We thought of two names for the film which were 'The 4th Day' and '4 Days'. In the end we named our film '4 Days' as the events of the plot take place over a period of 4 days in a non-chronological order which starts at the end.

Foundation Production Lighting

When we film the bands for the club scene we won't need to set up any lighting. There will be stage lighting, including band blinders and strobes; these will really light up the stage and give a sense of  realism for a club environment.

Again, for the chase scene we won't set up any of our own artificial lighting. For the realism of the forest environment we will shoot the scene in day light and have just natural lighting. Also it would probably be to difficult to set up lighting, as the characters will be running through the forest at quite a fast speed. We want the scene to flow as naturally as possible to build the tension and chilling atmosphere in the film. 

As we are filming in natural light we will have to make sure that we set the white balance in between every shot we take. This is very important as it will affect our overall grade if we do not consider using it.

Foundation Production Filming Dates

We are going to film on the 17th feburury which is going to be the club scene, we have been given permission by the organiser of the event to film the bands. Also we will film through half term specifically the 19th 20th and 21st for the chase scene; we dont need permision to film here, as it is public land. However we are going to put up notices to let any bystanders know that we are filming.  

Foundation Production Plot Animatic

This is the animatic for our thriller opening, it is in a very simple form, but this is the layout for our plot through out the opening. it is a very basic animatic and it is likely that we will add or get rid of shots depending on whether we come up with new ideas or better ways to shoot specific shots for example a shot revers shot in the club is essential because the audience needs to see and hear both characters however when the pretagonist is begining to feel the effects of the spiked drink, we don't see Dani's character do anything to the drink so we may add a shot of her adding something to it.  

Health and Safety when filming

When we are filming in our locations we need to consider the many potential hazards.

Possible hazards when filming in the Ashdown Forest are:

• The risk of uneven ground and holes(rabbit and badger)  that are potential trip hazards. So we would have to check the ground where we plan to film the shots that are required.
• We must have a clear path for the camera person as they fall and damage the equipment and themselves.
• As we are filming in the forest we must make sure that we do not tresspass onto private property.
• In the forest we could come across some wild animals and must not approach them incase they find us intimidating and could lash out at us.
• We are going to be filming in an old abandoned army barrack, we have to be careful as the ceilings are quite low therefore we would have to make sure we don't hit our heads. We would also need to make sure we would have enough room.
• As the forest is a public place we woulld have to consider that some people may walk past, therefore we would need to make signs so that people are ware of us filming.

Possible hazards when filming the club scene in either the Albermarle or the live room are:

• As there will many extras present in the setting we would have to make sure that nobody damages the equipment or is injured by the equipment.
• We have to ask for permission to film at the venue and so that people agree to us filming them.
• We have to make sure the camera is out of the way of the crowd so the camera doesn't get damaged, lost or stolen.
• As a group we would have to communicate so that we know when we are filming and where we are filming in the venue.

Pre-Production Planning: Possible music ideas

We are using Jack's band 'The Crows' as our source of music. Most of the songs are covers but he has one suitable for the our thriller openning.

Pre-Production Planning: Our ideas

We had two ideas for our thriller opening to start off with. These ideas were;

• A forest chase scene in which Jake is running from a hitman and he trips as the hitman catches up he talks to Jake and then shoots him.
• Our other was a scene that would be shot in a club or at a gig venue where a band will be playing and Jake is there hanging out until he served a drink that was spiked.

We ended up merging the two ideas in the end. Our new idea is going to be in a non-chronological order as Jake is running through a forest trying to escape from a hitman, this then flashes back to the gig scene where Jake is served up a spiked drink. We thought that this would work well and would give the audience many questions to ask.

Group Roles for pre production planning

We have decided on our group roles:

Locations

• Dom and Jake are in charge of imagery of locations and decisions about locations.

Props research

• Jack and Dani are in charge of prop research this includes organising actors and extras if needed.

Storyboarding and script

• Jake and Jack will be in charge of script writing and storyboarding.
• Dani will be doing the synopsis to our whole film.

Fillming and directing

• As a group we are all going to take part in filiming and acting in our production.
• Dom will be in charge of lighting decisions.

Health and safety

• We will be working as a group to make sure that we stick to health and safety rules when we are filming.

Match on action in prelimnary video

 As I was in charge of locations of filming I chose the places where we used our match on actions. We have used two examples of matches on action in our final edited clip the first occurs at 00:30-00:31 and the other at 1:06-1:09. We used match on actions to help our film flow.

 We filmed the first match on action as Jake approaches a closed door and his hand leads to push it open. To create this match on action we filmed Jake coming through the door from the other side. This shot took a lot of careful editing as we had to time it correctly. There was also an issue of continuity which we had to make sure we got right whilst filming this match on action. This was the way in which Jake opened the door, we had to make sure he lead with the same hand as he did when he was approaching the door.

For the other match on action we filmed Jake again approaching a door as he is exiting to the shot we quickly cut to the door handle as he grabs it. This is the best bit of editing in the clip in my opinion as it was well planned.

Preliminary final edited video.

This is our final edited film.

Initial locations for shots

These images are of the locations that we will be using in our production.



Establishing shot, introducing setting and character




This is where the bad character (Jake) will enter the college




Possible different angle of the establishing shot




Possible different angle of where Jake will enter




Jake will walk in through here (this angle may not be used in the final edit though)





Jake will walk over the bridge to get to where Dom is waiting.



Possible different angle.

Possible different angle on the bridge










Group roles

We have decided on our group roles:
Dom will handle the locations, times and general organisation when to shoot there.
Dani is in charge of props and casting, she will organise actors and extras if needed.
Jake is in charge of directing and filming and will start and end the shots.
Jack is an all round member of the group, he will be focasing on the blog, storyboard and e-mails but will also be helping in all aspects of the group in some way.

We will all be taking part in the film.

Our Group, our blog

This is our group Dom Graham, Dani Bruton, Jack Leonard-tidy and finally Jake Annison. here's our media thriller blog.