R+P Post 20: Reflections So Far/Looking Ahead

Reflecting on the work we have done so far, I believe as a group we have come really far in terms of what we have created since the first time we sat down and drew a story board. We have overcome a few trip-ups and re-established the process of filming, planning, researching and editing which was a bit rusty from last year. I think we have co-operated very well as a group and all interpreted our own ideas into our (almost) final idea. We have kept and improved on our idea so it now has a substantial and clear story. Our Rough Cut edit has been a huge help in noticing the obvious and subtle aspects we need to change for the real thing. I have overall really enjoyed working with my group to create what we have so far, even when at times, us not getting things right was frustrating!

Looking ahead, in preparation for our next Main Shoot, we have already created a 'necessary shots' list in which we listed every key shot needed in our opening:

(NECESSARY) SHOT LIST:

-        Lola coming round corner

-        Lola walking into bathroom

-        Lola looking in mirror, pouring pills in sink, crying, writing on mirror

-        Lola rings doorbell, walks in

-        Lola’s perspective, camera tracks through hallway into living room, glides over alcohol bottles and people’s faces  (people on stairs, in hallway)

-        Track shot of Lola

-        Track shot of Lola’s perspective (Noah + Ella T together), Noah: Oh Lola

-        OTS Noah, Lola: Wtf

-        Master shot, Lola slaps Noah, camera follows Lola upstairs

-        People dancing

-        People kissing

-        Guy cutting line, OTS shot

-        Cutaways to bottles, rolling products

-        Feet movement

-        Zoomed in shots of faces/body parts

-        Lola with wine bottle in hand

-        Lola drinking/smoking

-        Noah + Ella T shots

-        People sitting round table chatting

-        Smoking in background

-        Establish relations between people – 2 people sat in corner

-        People stumbling

-        Throwing pillows

R+P Post 19: Our Rough Cut

Our Rough Cut:

This is our finished rough cut. I had a lot of fun filming it and it has been extremely helpful with regards to spotting  what went well and what we need to change.

From how our rough cut turned out, we noticed the overall feel of the opening was quite slow and didn't work well with the background music and overall atmosphere we wish to create in our 'party scene'. In the main shoot we have decided to include more than double the amount of shots we did in our rough cut for the party scenes. This is to ensure we can have fast-paced editing and lots of cuts, including cutaways of scenery and objects in the room related to the party lifestyle. A lot of our shots were poorly framed, for example in our shot of a girl dancing on her own there is a huge space above her head which makes it look very unprofessional. From listening to feedback, we also felt that our use of alcohol and smoking was too obvious and was not used in a clever, more subtle way which would have a better effect on the audience.
Most importantly, the lighting in each of our shots was very inconsistent and not of a high quality. So, in the main shoot, we will be using a lighting kit and a light for the top of the camera to avoid getting such grainy shots. 

We concluded that our shoot board was unnecessary for use in all the shots apart from the argument scene because we wanted them to be spontaneous and not forced or awkward. 

R+P Post 18: Our Test Shoot

There was a lot of pre-planning which we had to all take part in before we could physically go and begin our test shoot. There was a contract form given by the Media Department which we all had to get our parents to sign before equipment was allowed to be released to us to use outside of school. Once all the members in our group had signed this contract, we then had to decide who was bringing the equipment from and to school-we decided Flo would as her Mum was able to pick it up from school and drop it back. We then wrote down our decided shooting times - 1pm until 9pm - which we got Miss Blackborow and the technician, Emma, to sign. 

After this was done, we were introduced to every piece of equipment we would be using in the shoot and therefore, how to use it. This included the camera, tripod, lighting sets, microphone, clapper board, packing and unpacking equipment and how to replace/charge batteries correctly. 

R+P Post 17: Our Planned Costumes and Props, Hair and Makeup

These are some pictures I found online of references to different outfits (party wear) similar to the costume we want our actors to be dressed it. The first picture is from the movie Kidulthood and this 90s street wear is what is popular amongst teens at the moment so we want to  interpret some of that clothing into our costumes. These 90s clothes often consist of old/vintage brands such as Laoste, Polo Ralph Lauren, Fred Perry, Lyle and Scott and more. The 2 last pictures are real images taken in popular London clubs. The last picture shows 2 girls in one glitter and one black bralette which seem to be popular amongst elder teens also. The second to last image shows a girl wearing a one-shoulder dress-very 90s styling again.

This is the costume, hair and makeup list we have created

We distributed this sheet to all of our actors, including ourselves. This sheet worked well and all our crew felt very informed afterwards,

R+P Post 16: Casting

Our cast was made up of people from our friendship group seen as they, fortunately, fitted the perfect age group of 16-17 year olds to attract our TA. Here are some images from their instagram pages which we researched in trying to get inspiration for makeup, costume etc...

       

Noah to play Marlon

We noticed they fit the casual/party/sociable lifestyle we want to be present in our characters so we decided to ask them to act in our film, an idea they were all keen on! We decided to cast our 2 main characters, Lola and Marlon, as Ella Budgett and Noah Bador. Ella because she also fitted the character persona we wanted for our teenagers and also because she has good acting skills which we needed for our main girl. Noah also has a laid-back teenage vibe to him so we decided to cast him as the main boy.

Ella to play Lola

R+P Post 15: Our Planned Filming Location and Set Design

We planned to shoot our film opening in Flo's living room, garden, bathroom and hallway. The set will be mostly left the same apart from the addition of bottles and general mess that one might expect to see at a teenage party.
Below are some pictures taken from our rough edit which show the 4 main sets within Flo's household we will use.

Flo's Kitchen (behind Ella)

Flo's Garden

Flo's Living Room

Flo's Bathroom

We also created a props list with the few props our film opening requires. This document is shown below...

R+P Post 14: Our Call Sheet (inc production schedule)

Ella, Flo and I created a call sheet for our actors and ourselves to find out what time they are required to come, where they are required to come to and how long they will be used for. We also put our 3 contact numbers at the bottom of the sheet incase any cast members were still not clear or incase there were any problems with travelling to Flo's on the day.

This creation and distribution of a call sheet will hopefully allow the shoot to run smoothly and ensure everyone is communicating, letting us know of any problems or questions they may have.

R+P Post 13: Our Shootboard

This is an example of one page from our shootboard (page number 1). In our shootboard we arranged shots not in terms of when they will come in the sequence, but grouped them into their different settings to make filming on the day much easier. For example, all the shots shown above are filmed in Flo's living room "INSIDE" the house so we dont have to transport camera equipment more than necessary, helping us make full use of our time. We also ordered shots in terms of which actors would be used. For example the first few pages of our storyboard is all shots with Ella acting in them. This prevents actors from hanging around or getting in the way-they can come at a set time in which they will be used for the entire time.
The shootboard also helped us plan how long we would spend shooting each shot, when our breaks would be and how long these breaks would be. Overall, it helps to structure our shoot day and with clear pictures of each shot, the director and camera man knows exactly what and how to film it.
As for the columns shown on the right half of our shootboard, they describe what is happening in each shot, making it clear for the camera operators. The 2 columns after this tell us which actors we need for that particular shot and who should be on the camera or directing ( I evenly distributed the workload of filming and directing so we all get an equal go at it ). The last 2 columns are left blank for us to use on the day-we wrote down how many takes were filmed and which take was the best or whether the takes would need to be re-filmed. This makes it a lot easier to pick out shots when it comes to editing-you dont even have to think about it.

R+P Post 12:Our Animatic

The Animatic-stills of our shots and titles in chronological order with voice-overs, sound effects and music
This is our group's animatic for our film opening sequence. As there is only three of us we could only have maximum two actors in a shot at a time which makes things slightly confusing. For example our main character, Lola (Ella Budgett), is not meant to be shown until the first mirror motif shot of her but for the animatic's sake we had to use her from the start. In shots where there seems to be only one or two people dancing, in the real thing we will include much more people to create a realistic party scene.We also had to use Flo Donald to play Marlon which can be confusing!
We now realise we need to make our shot frames a lot tighter in places because lots of extra wasted space above actors looks messy and unprofessional. The shot at 1:13 is unclear but will be an over-the-shoulder shot over Lola's shoulder with Marlon and the girl talking to each other as what she shown to be looking at. After some discussion with Miss B and our group, we want to add in a shot at the end of our sequence of some pills spilling out of Lola's bag. This will explain why she's so unstable at this point and deglamourises the use of drugs which is implied in our opening sequence. This shot will also create a messy atmosphere and set up questions for our audience as to what's going on in Lola's life that is causing her to act in this destructive manner.
We did include a brief voice over of the dialogue for our trailer but it is purposely muffled and hard to make out because in the real thing, we want the actors to be miming and their voices to be practically unheard over the loud music and chaos of the party scene. We think this will add to the realism and detract from any imperfect acting (as none of us are particularly good at acting!).

R+P Post 11:Our Timeline and Storyboard

Timeline
We created a timeline to help with timings regarding film's our opening sequence. This made it much easier when coming to draw out our storyboard. On our timeline we drew an overall time frame for our opening-two minutes-and within this we laid out several sections where our shots would be "outside", "inside" or part of the "argument" scene. For each section we allocated a set amount of time and within that time we would know how many shots to fit in there from our storyboard.
We also included our title scenes and this helped us to decide where to put them throughout the duration of the open and how many to include. When creating our storyboard we referred back to the timeline a lot and it played a big part in spotting mistakes and reevaluating our decisions.

Storyboard

An example of four of our shots and how we planned them

 We then made a storyboard. Our storyboard consisted of an A2 sheet of sugar paper with post-it notes stuck to it, representing our shot visuals and shot types. The storyboard consisted of 45 shots ranging from close-ups to long shots and our post-it notes were coded accordingly-the mid-shots were green, long shots were blue, titles were yellow and close-ups were purple.
This storyboard was extremely useful in working out the best arrangement of shots and helped us to visualise how our trailer would eventually pan out.