Wednesday 13 February 2008

location shot 12/2/08

Filming the 'bedroom/girlfriend troubles scene' took place 7 Knightsbridge close, Tunbridge Wells. When undertaking filming we found that the acting was harder than we thought it would be, which therefore took longer to film and more takes to get gather all the footage we intended.
When filming one of the scenes, where the actor (Jack) strides alongside side the bed back and forth, we had not realised that part of the camera could be seen in the mirror until we watched the footage. We took it into consideration whilst filming but a small reflection could be seen, therefore having to re-film this sequence.
When filming we came up with ideas of more creative camera work and angles which help influence shot ideas and gain better footage, such as a shot through the window from the outside of the house looking at the couple on the bed.

After we had finished, we also went to film the traffic light shots (shown in our animatic and storyboard) and on board filming of the actor driving. The traffic light sequence filmed was able to be more creative by handicam work and filming from different heights on a bank next to the traffic light.

Friday 8 February 2008

Product Analysis - Beyonce - Irreplaceable

We were recomended to analyse this video for aid for our 'girl - boy' scene as it had a very simular narrative of an argument between a breaking up couple in a bedroom. When viewing the video we looked particularly at mise-en-scene, camera angle and position to try and get our scene as aulthentic as possible. when viewing the video we found a number of concepts appealing that would work well if we were to encorporate it into out own scene.

The camera is always moving and never stationary, this seems to add pace to the scene which is what we aim to do.

Slomotion shots are very frequent which we also plan to include, it adds creativity aswell as a scense of drama, and is also asthetically pleasing.

there was a suprising amount of clutter and other props in the room, we originally thought having minimalistic locations were typical convensions of the genre but this video doesnt reinforce this concept.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=gNzLAGvzYKs

Lacation Shot 08/02/08

Filming the 'Money Scene' would take place at 13 Peach Hall, Tonbridge. The first scene where the performer steps out the car and enters the house was plsanned to be done in one take but editing was required resulting in a number of cuts to oher footage. With a free house and interuptions minimal filming went smoothly and the desired footage was captured. Certain changes from story board were inevitable, one major change was that we ended up shooting in the living room rather than the kitchen as we feltit was more minamilistic, suiting the genre, and we felt we could create a wider variety of angles and camera movements. moreover, a glass table we found was used to create lots or creative footage that we originally hadnt thought of but i believe our empravisation on location has worked well.

Tuesday 5 February 2008

Animatic production

Animatic Production

The formation of our animatic was to produce a storyboard which involved shot by shot drawings. We created a first draft of eight basic shots to practice the technique we would be using in our final animatic. We included a brief description explaining the shot type (Close-up, medium shot etc.). Using a video recorder, held in place by a tri-pod to ensure we got a clear and detailed image, we took still footage of each individual frame we had drawn. Having completed the storyboard and filming we captured the images into Adobe Premiere Elements. Then placed it on a timeline where we could split the clips up individually and alter the frame rate, stretching the length of the image to the desired time. We did this in time to our track (Ja Rule featuring Tank – Race Against Time) by importing it into the same timeline allowing us to work with both audio and visuals simultaneously. We then uploaded our Finished animatic into a Youtube account for viewing.
We believe our animatic went well, but we relised we had to have more 'filling' shots. As a result we took into consideration more camera angles and effects that could be used, when brainstorming extra shots as a group discussion. For example one of our narrative scenes with the money difficulties. Overall the animatic has helped us develop and gain key skills understanding how to use Adobe Premiere Elements, using such tools as, fade in, fade out, jump cuts, changing contrast and brightness. We were able to familiarise with live footage to from our very first test shoot, replacing some of the still animatic shots with the footage we had gathered. Overall filming the animatic has helped us relise what to aim for in our final result.

Oli, Jack, Sam

Monday 4 February 2008

Location Shot 03/02/08

The focus of our 4th location shot was to film as much of the chorus performances as possible, each location with a full peformance of the chorus giving us pleanty of footage to ensure fast paced edting.


On location we came up with various new ideas that we had previously not storyboarded for. This included various different lighting techniques and a shot of the camera following the performer as we walks backwards lipsinking. another idea we had planned, was to use the portable hallogen light under a stack of wooden crates to project light up the performer, giving the effect he is standing on light. unfortunately we encountered some technical difficulty and the light blew and we lost the use of it.


The filming went really well, and once the footage was captured onto a computer the lighting and performance affects were amplified in a positive way.

Wednesday 30 January 2008

Monday 28 January 2008

Location Shot 27/01/08

For our second location shot we returned to Lakeside/Thurrock where we began filming our practice shots with more precision and detail, taking into consideration camera techniques such as the rule of thirds.

We also learnt to create wastage by recording a small amount either side of each shot to ensure we captured all the frames, we knew that we could then cut out this wastage in the editing software once the footage was captured on the computer

Recording our footage in colour was also done, rather than record in black and white as we learnt we could adjust the contrast to give us the affect rather than just be stuck with the one option.

Shots involving point of view driving shots and the 'drive by' lingering shots were also rendered by using a more affective way of positioning the camera to get a smoother shot.

Our practice shots were stopped early by bad weather conditions, checking up to date weather reports would be crucial to check before signing out cameras.

On location shot 3 we want to try some car to car filming whch will be very affective aswell as improving some performance/lipsinking footage.