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Final filming day, 1st June

We had completed most of filming for our final major project but just needed a final extra day to get shots we weren't happy with and to finish off the story. 

It began with us finishing of the fight scene at the end. Ethan ends up shooting Joe in the mouth and bleed spews over the car bonnet. All of shots filmed worked during this day one especially in the car seat. In the car seat of the car you can then see Joe threw his guts up over the car. using the fake blood Tom made. This makes it a bit more authentic as if he was shot and no blood was produced it would look unrealistic.

We then filmed an end scene which we changed from the script due to time changes and the availability of Josh in the evening. In the ned Ethan grabs Joe’s stuff and walks away. We used two different lenses fro this part. One for the close up we filmed and the other for the long shot with a wider lens.

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Fourth filming day, 26th May

Today was the fourth day of filming for our final major project, we were hoping that this would be the last day of filming as we had more time for filming on this day.

We originally filmed in the evenings from around 4pm - 7pm as this was the only time that the actors were available due to college, however the actors are now on study leave, therefore this gives us more time to film for the final project.

We needed the replacement bat today which Tom brought along which was a Walking dead replica bat. It looked very authentic in our setting it had fake barbed wire wrapped round it and u wouldn't be able to tell its fake on the camera or on screens 

He also brought along fake blood which was applied to many objects in the yard. We then used these objects in our a couple of our shots one in particular is when Ethan is walking into the container and the camera is focused on the bloody bat which he doesn't see and walks straight into Joe’s trap. 

We actually got rather a lot done this day. We used Josh’s drone to film the part where Ethan is walking into the yard. I wanted to get more shots with the drone such as filming the actual location as a whole and a part for the chase. 

We filmed the part of the story where Ethan escapes from the container and runs round block to hide and creates suspense when Joe attempts to find him and cant seem to. 

We overall just filmed the chase and the part leading up to the car scene. 

In one of shots the natural lighting was blinding our actors and you couldn't really make out their faces. Josh didn't bring his reflector so I improvised and brought a huge piece of wood to block out the sunlight.   

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Third Filming day, 16th May

For this day we needed to speed up our filming process in order to make the deadline due for our film.

We did not continue in chronological order for this filming day and decided to film the interrogation scenes inside of the container as the weather was poor and would not fit in with the continuity of our film. We also had the other actor there (Adam) who would have been waiting around if we carried on with the filming from there. 

We booked out the lighting kit in order for today and it would be a key part of the filming day throughout. I wanted the lighting to look right in all of the shots we made so when setting one up we did take up a lot of time doing so. But I would rather have a better looking scene which takes time rather than a poorly light one. 

Whilst Tom was moving the lighting around so I could see the camera and what it looked like I was closet to the sound kit and operated that as there were not many hands free. 

We got a lot of shots I like the look of. One of my favourites being Ethan moves up with the camera and finds that Joe is behind him pointing a gun at him. The camera focuses from Ethan onto Joe in the background.

Overall we did get a lot of filming done inside the container and managed to move the scene on very quickly.   

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Second Filming day, 9th May

The second day of filming was pretty much continuing on the story from the first day of filming. 

We had timing issues again since Dan (actor) was running late due to traffic problems coming back from Colchester Sixth Form. During his absence we set up equipment and got set up over at the last filming location from yesterday.  To prevent this happening next time however for Monday we will be in contact with the actor/s for the whole day to ensure that they will be arriving on location in time and if they are going to be late we will get other things done where they are not needed.

Another problem was also encountered was the baseball bat we planned on using broke. I was wearing out the at and it snapped into three pieces this is annoying as it was part of our story. We will have to look for a baseball bat as it is needed for upcoming filming days luckily not today. 

We did manage to film the exploration scenes of our film, our main character, Ethan is wondering the wilderness in search of food, water and sanctuary, he comes across a river in which he washes his face and attempts to collect water however it is dirty, so he has no luck.

we got a range of different shots from different angles and movements, we try to show as much of the post apocalyptic world as possible, the location that we chose really gives off that effect as it looks abandoned and some things there look like they have been left there for a while, for example I made sure that an overgrown bike that was left in the river was in shot as this adds to the post apocalyptic effect of the film. 

For the face washing shots of the film, we filmed the actor taking water from the river from different angles, we then replaced the water with clean drinking water and shot from the same angles again however the way the shots will be edited will give the impression that he picked up dirty water from the river to wash his face.

The next filming day is the 15th of May were we will need both of the actors from now on. 

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First filming day, 8th May

Today was the first day of filming

We planned for the crew to get there a couple of hours before filming to set up the equipment being used and to mainly make the location look ready and prepared for filming.

Before the actor arrived (We only needed Dan today) we wanted to make sure that the costume looked as authentic as possible. I brought the costume which was a older puffer jacket coat that had been worn out and a pair of old jeans. Before filming I have already cut holes in them before our shooting day to make them look like they’ve gone through a lot of time and challenges whilst he’s been trying to survive. To make the costume look more weathered we also saw a small bonfire at the yard and proceeded to dip the coat on there to hopefully gather burns and a lot of ash to make it seem dustier. For the ripped jeans we planned to do the same but didn’t want to risk it being burned and unusable so we just made them dirtier by dragging them across the dirty floor. Tom also purchased a baseball bat so we needed to rough that up as well because it was a new one. I hit the bat firmly against a hard object to make dents and would put it through dusty terrain.

We started filming deeper in the forest to make sure we didn't start to close to the yard and not too far. I wanted to start with Dan waking up and setting off for the day ahead. I wanted to catch the audiences emotions at the start by getting a touching shot of him looking at the photo. 

Favourite shots from the day were a moving shot from the left to right focusing from the tree and onto dan. The shot makes it look like a potential enemy is looking at him through the trees. Creates a feeling of danger in the atmosphere. 

Overall I think the first day went as expected, we could have got a lot more done, however we didn’t get to the location early enough and spent too long on preparing costumes and making sure we had everything, for the next filming day (tomorrow) we will make sure we have everything we need before we get to the location, we also won’t need to dress and prepare any props as this will have already been done today; we will only need the same actor for the scenes tomorrow and the other actor won’t be needed until next week.

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Theoretical Problems

In production you are always likely to run into a few problems that may disrupt the filming process you had planned. During, before and after filming we ran into a few problems that were encountered with head on and dealt with. 

Lack of actors 

We originally looking for 3 actors to be in our short film. We had already agreed well in advance of filming with two actors and just needed to find another actor to fit the script. I sent out a casting call on my social media which was unsuccessful as there were not many applicants. We then asked if the two other actors could ask other members of the class to perform. This also did not go to plan. We then altered the script to put the ‘Shaun’ character out of it so that he did not feature on the script. Looking back if I could do things differently I would go round to the performing arts section of the institute here and sixth form and personally ask the students there or put out flyers around the college to spread the word. 

Cancelled Filming days

During filming we had a few days which were cancelled due to events that we couldn't help happening. Josh on the first day cancelled (15th May) couldn't make it because he had to take his brother to hospital. The next cancelled filming was the 22nd as Josh could not make it. We then looked at the schedule and then used our two back up days which was the best solution to the problems. It still took up more time for filming which was not very helpful. In hindsight we would have started filming earlier and have finalised filming days earlier so everyone knew what days we would definitely be filming.

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Secondary Research, Directors I admire: Martin Scorsese

As my final project starts to unfold I have started to look at my favourite directors and their highly impressive work and what influence I can take form them. 

One of my favourite films of all time is the Wolf of Wall street which Martin Scorcese directed. I enjoy the way he explains and shows the story to the audience. The camerawork him and Rodrigio Prieto work on tirelessly is very impressive. Certain shots are used frequently within Martin Scorcese work even within Wolf of Wall street. He uses a High angle Overhead shot in most of his film. Watch this video and this will give you some sort of example.

https://vimeo.com/193740044

Whenever watching a piece of his work I always appreciate and enjoy this types of shots. I plan to replicate and use inspiration from this type of shot in our short film. I obviously need to be realistic because in reality it is very difficult in this type of of shot to get the height to film it and have the equipment available. To get the perfect shot for this we first of all need the height. This can be achieved by climbing on top of the containers in the yard. In a certain scene we plan to film where the chase continues down a tight squeeze between containers. I will then get Adam’s character (Joe) to slow down and bring through a weapon to add . To get this shot me and Josh will climb on top on the container and film with a wide lense to get high angle from a Birdseye view. This will replicate a similar and will look and work well within the story.         

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Results from Survey

From all the results I've received from the survey it has told me the Target audience, a lot of what i need to do as a director and what should be changed in the project.

In total 16 people took my survey about our upcoming project.

The first couple questions were to try and fin out our main demographic for the film. The most who were interested in taking the survey were young adults who are male. This will be our base target audience it will b

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Location

We have researched locations for our final major project, throughout the researching and pre production process we messaged a lot of different sources trying to find locations that suited our project idea. 

We first of all went around our group and tried to think of any places we knew that would suit or idea. Tom’s dad owns a large piece of yard which he uses for his tree surgery company. Tom was able to get the permission for filming on the land and planned to film on there. We went there to get test shots. 

With one location sorted we searched for another one to combine the two make a large great location for the chase scene. We emailed a lot of different places to ask for permission for filming. I emailed all of the local councils asking for places that would suit our idea and how we can ask them.   

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Transport (Theoretical Problems)

Transport will be a big problem is not sorted correctly. Luckily for me and Tom filming location is on the same town we live in so its walking distance for us. The same is not said for Josh as he lives an hour away from location. Most of the camera equipment will be with Josh as well so it is key that he can get to location. Josh and Tom both have cars which makes it a lot easier to get to location and getting equipment from college. If Josh can not use his car for an unlikely reason he can still get to location by a lift from a friend or family or bus. Remaining equipment that needs to collected from the college will be collected by me or Tom. Most likely Tom as he has a car but if he cannot I will get the bus into Colchester and gather the equipment for filming later on in the day.  

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Crew Dynamics (Theoretical Problems)

There our three members of crew for the final project. We are a group of friends who have worked with each other on successful projects over the last two years of our college course. I believe it important that you have a group that you are comfortable expressing your personal ideas to and can work effectively without going off track. This is why we have all come together to work on this project. We have given the roles we feel that suit us all individually, we also had these roles for our most recent project which we feel was the most successful this year. In terms of communication we all are very accessible to each other. I have all of the cast and crew’s phone numbers and have their Facebook which you can message them through. If we have a problem contacting the actors our editor is actually the twin brother of the main actor. Making it easy for us to talk to him. Me and Tom now them personally as friends so we know how and when we can contact. The actors live in the same location of filming the same goes for me and Tom. The only problem is that our Camera Operator lives an hour away. This could become a problem if traffic is an issue or just getting to location. He does own a car which should solve any issues but he has promised the crew he will leave slightly earlier just in case of any problems driving. He can ring one of us and we may have to use one of ur back up filming days.  

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Unwanted Noise (Theoretical Problems)

Another problem that can occur when filming outside is background noise creeping into the film due to bad location choice and poor sound operation. First would be wind, On filming days it could be quite windy and can expectantly creep into your audio. With the sound equipment we must use the wind shield and windjammer to prevent the wind coming into the audio. As extra precaution you can check the force of the wind that will happen on that day using weather apps online.

Traffic and the public will not be a problem in our audio as our filming location in on the outskirts of town and members of the public will rarely walk past. Filming will also be nowhere near the entrance or anywhere the public can get to.

Sounds that may become frustrating to us are birds from nearby trees. When we went down for test shots it became apparent that it may be an issue with sound. To prevent his from entering the audio we will put the microphone as close and as far away from the birds as possible. Tom (Editor) knows how to get rid of background noise very well using Adobe Encore so this should not become a problem. The sound booth is also booked for sound effects and can be used for ambient sound.