R+P Post 20: Reflections so far/looking ahead

Reflections so far:
So far, I think that our group work has been good at times but not so good at others. After reflecting on this stage, I feel like it could have gone a lot better. The final product, the rough cut, was not as we expected it to be; for example the sense of character and genre was not connoted as well as we wanted it to. Despite this, we have shown good team skills and a consistently positive mentality throughout.

Looking ahead:
As a next step it will be important to really pin point any areas of this stage that did not work well. Things such as the location of our test shoot, and the plot of our rough cut are things that will need acting on, and we will be sure to rectify this to the best of our ability. This is likely to include research into other potential locations for our main shoot and the redrafting of our sequence idea and plot.

R+P Post 19: Our rough cut

To produce the rough cut edit of our 2 minute opening sequence, we decided to use a computer software called Adobe Premier Pro. This software allows us to place all the shots that we had taken at our test shoot on a track in the desired order which eventually became our finished rough cut sequence. It also allowed us to insert the music we had selected into the sequence.

Some other additional things that Adobe Premier Pro allowed us to do was:

• Add titles and production and distribution company logos to the sequence
• Add transition effects such as a dissolve fade, dip to black or exponential fade/gain to the video or audio of shots
• Compose the shots in a way that allowed us to cut to the next shot on a beat in the song
• Adjust the scale and position of a shot on the screen
• Edit the volume of certain shots by adding effects such as a constant power/gain to a part of the soundtrack

The rough cut of our 2 minute opening sequence video:

R+P Post 18: Our test shoot

Our test shoot was held on Sunday 7th February between the hours of 9am and 5pm.
From the group point of view and teach comments, we realised that our test shoot was not as successful as we hoped. There were a few of problems that we faced:

1. Filming did not begin at the planned time - we planned to begin shooting at 9:30 which was decided based on a rough estimate on how long it would take for us to dress the set . However due to travel issues faced by the group, we were not able to start filming until about an hour after the scheduled start time. This had big consequences; as the day went on, we gradually ran out of natural daylight and so in order to continue filming we had to use artificial light for some of the later shots, which created a big continuity error.
2. A group member was not able to attend - One member of our group was not able to attend as they were on a German exchange trip. This was an unavoidable situation and as we knew of this absence prior to the shoot, we were able to work around, however it would have been beneficial to have the entire group there to aid the production of the test shoot
3. Location - Once filming we quickly realised that the room did not work as well as we thought it would. There were issues with space, which impacted our filming capabilities as we were not able to effectively perform some of the camera movements we planned.

Additionally, there were a few issues with props. We planned to use certain props such as a moodboard and gloves, however a small spout of a lack in organisation resulted in us not being able to include some props, as they were either forgotten (gloves) or not prepared (the mood board).

Following the test shoot, we decided that we needed to change some things for the upcoming main shoot. We decided to change locations and create a props list in the hope that this would remove any issues with space and keep us organised with props, to prevent a repeat of the flaws in the test shoot.

R+P Post 17: Our planned costumes and hair and make-up

To ensure the characteristics and styles of our characters were well presented, we decided to create a costume list. In this document, information such as guidelines on hair & make-up, costume descriptions and details on the references that we used for our costume were included. Initially, we did not have a costume list but after teacher comments on the lack of costume in the test shoot, we created a costume list to reflect our aims for thorough characterisation.

R+P Post 16: Casting

In the run up to our main shoot, there were a number of documents that we decided to create that we did not for our test shoot. One of these was a cast list. This document included key details of the characters and the actors that played them such as names, a short description of the characters and some information about the actors to play them.

Deciding on an actor to play our main character was more straightforward than we expected. Our first step on finding an actor was to ask within our friendship groups. We initially had doubts about doing this as we were not sure that they would be as serious and professional as we needed them to be, however we followed on and instead were sure to emphasise the importance of what they would be agreeing to. In the end after a few discussions in our group meetings, we decided to choose Celine to play the main character in our opening sequence. We were happy with this selection as we knew that Celine was an AS Drama student who is a capable actor that has been involved in a number of successful school plays/productions.

Ella Thompson and I, decided to include ourselves in the cast list and take up the roles of playing the remaining 2 characters, Ella and Anthony. We decided to this as we were not only confident that we would be able to act these accordingly, but we knew it would avoid the risk of any problems associated with having actors that were not part of the group, such as deciding on our shooting day; with more people, there are more schedules to satisfy, so by not bringing in another 2 people we could avoid this problem.

R+P Post 15: Our planned filming location, set design and props

Ella's Bedroom

For the filming of our opening sequence rough cut we decided to use the bedroom of a member of our group, Ella. We decided to use Ella's room as no any major changes to the set were required, and the room suited our opening sequence idea as it already had a number of things that we needed; we needed a mirror, a bed with some kind of bed side table and a wardrobe.

Please see the picture to the right for the filming location of our rough cut.

Following on from this, as a group we decided that the creation of a set & prop list would be of great benefit to the shooting process. This document was created for our main shoot and it entailed a list of the setups that would be used and a list of all the props we deemed necessity to have, to ensure the genre, personality and motives of the main character, and themes were further connoted. In hindsight, I feel that the use of a props list for our test shoot, would have maybe allowed for a better end product as the props would have aided the audience in understanding what was going on in our opening sequence.

Please see the picture to the right for the set & props list

R+P Post 14: Our Call Sheet

For our test shoot, we created a call sheet. This document will entail the specific details regarding our shoot; this includes the address of the shoot, the contact details of all the people that will be present at the shoot (all members of the cast and production teams), a health and safety list, and the call times for the crew times.

Please click the below for the call sheet used.

R+P Post 13: Our shootboard

We decided to construct a shoot board that would entail all the relevant information to do with the upcoming test shoot. This included the shot number, the location of the shots, a picture of the drawing of the shot and a short description of the shot. By including this detail on the shoot board, the shooting process could be made significantly easier as we would easily be able to refer to the shoot board to see what was required for each shot. One thing that we decided to do in an attempt to make us more efficient when shooting, was to group the shots on the shoot board by location. We decided to do this as we felt it would be of great benefit when shooting. From my perspective this would be the most meaningful decision to do with the organisation for our shoot as it means that we have a pre-organised list of shots for each location, allowing us to shoot without having to significantly adjusting of the position/location of the camera between shots.

R+P Post 12: Our Animatic

To create our Animatic, we captured still photos of the content would be shown in each shot. To do this, we constantly referred back to the sequence of shots that we had previously planned on our storyboard. As each shot was drawn onto a post-it note and stuck down onto the storyboard in the desired ordered already, we were able to use the storyboard and work shot by shot to ensure the still shots that were taken, accurately reflected the desired ideas presented on the post-it note drawings. Looking back, the use of the varying colours was very beneficial to us as it allowed us to quickly differentiate between the shot types and/or framework that each shot required, therefore allowing the production of the Animatic to be quicker.

The Animatic turned out to be a very useful tool in the overall production of our 2 minute opening sequence. It allowed us to:

• Test our shots to see if they worked well with the other shots in the sequence
• Make a final decision on the soundtrack that we would use as we were able to test the 2 potential soundtracks that we had chosen and therefore decide which one anchored the story line of our sequence more effectively
• Easily identify and correct any continuity errors in the sequence, which we later rectified by adding and replacing shots where necessary

Please see the video below for our finished Animatic:

R+P Post 11: Our timeline and storyboard

The next stage in the production of our 2 minute opening sequence required us to produce a timeline and storyboard which would entail the story line and plot of our opening sequence. These were both produced in the group meetings that we held, and in our lesson time.

Timeline:
The timeline was made by sticking 4 A4 pieces of paper together horizontally and drawing 2 straight lines across all of them with a space of 9 cm to create 3 columns. We completed this first as we felt it would be best to have the timeline done as soon as possible so the construction of our storyboard would not be delayed by the lack of a reference when creating the shots.

Storyboard:
For our storyboard, we used a large A2 piece of sugar paper to convey our desired plan for the shots. Each shot was drawn onto a post-it note and stuck down onto the storyboard in the desired order. The post-it's were different colours, either green, pink or orange, and this was used to denote the different shot types and framing to be used.

Our Storyboard

• Pink = Titles
• Green = Close up
• Orange = Mid shot
• Yellow = Long shot