Production Shoot: 21/11/12

During the school week  Tom employed the help of his friend, Curtis, to play the role of our main antagonist - the Enclave government leader. He fit the sophisticated yet menacing role we were going for, especially when we fitted him with a suit, which he kindly provided himself. On the day of filming, we used our free hour to film enough shots to convey Curtis' character being the antagonist, though with some enigma surrounding him.

We started by going to our deputy head's office, as the chosen location, and he gave us some privacy to film. We positioned objects in the setting, such as chairs and computers, to make the setting appear like a workstation doubled up as a meeting room, though also containing elements that connote warfare and action. This included us introducing some of our own props for this, including toy gun replicas (for which we asked permission from the school to use out of public, which was granted) and maps sprawled over a table in the centre of the shot. In addition to this we added the composite of homely features, like the Union Jack pillow, to give the room unusual character and comfort which, making a contrast in juxtaposition to the malicious intent of the antagonist and neglect of the country, we thought would make a good effect.

The actual filming ran smoothly as the room was easily accessible and accommodated our equipment nicely, allowing us to make full use of angles in the room. Then we tweaked the settings of the camera to make the picture darker, giving that 'underground gloom' as if the facility is located underground, secluded from the hazardous wastes above. It also made the shots appear sincere and further boded the possibility of the character in the shot being shady, similar to the setting. We had to look for features that would create the connotations, and denotations, needed for us to introduce a character's archetype in a tiny frame of time.

I was not in the scenes themselves for a change, I was mostly behind the camera trying to manipulate the angles in such a way to frame Curtis effectively and connote that he is a powerful, foreboding leader.

Once the filming had been done, we went to our Media lesson and edited the footage in Pinnacle.

Rough Cut Evaluation and Improvements

Here are the comments made by our class:

Improvements

Remove car sounds

Add dialogue scenes + news reports for narrative exposition and characterisation

More sound effects

Bus stop scene – Strobe lights in pinnacle and sound effects

Start with disruption, then create pace and drama to separate parts

Good Elements

Lots of good shots, but needs to be more like a trailer

Music creates atmosphere

Lots of enigma, too many

Add more colour filters such as Chroma key to wash out certain colours

Obvious people are dead and the world is desolated

From this we have established that we have a good variety of shots, as well as some action scenes and establishing some narrative. However, we must add more trailer conventions such as narrative voice-overs and dialogue, with additional action montages that will really enable an audience to grasp what the film genre is, what conventions it might follow, and most importantly what the story consists of.

We are currently at an early stage in the editing process as we have not got all of our shots and we are trying to put the trailer in a structure which makes good sense and flows well - this will be accomplished by integrating some of the above.

Production Shoot: 17/11/12

We arrived at the abandoned, decrepit factory near Spotland in the morning and set up our equipment within close proximity of the areas boundaries. We filmed some shots of the building's facade, and a couple of long shots showing myself and Tom running from the area to connote some element of peril, though without delving into the source of that peril which forms enigma codes. Following on from this, we made the most of the drab, overcast weather by filming Tom and I roaming a road. Kieran manned the camera whilst I had to play my role. For the shot-reverse-shot Tom filmed me as we walked to look as if we were in real conversation, and I did the same for him. Furthermore, we shot a snappy fight sequence including Kieran and Tom. We worked together with me setting up the camera and trying to frame the scene properly  whilst the others coordinated themselves.

We did confront a couple of problems here, such as the sporadic rain showers which sometimes intruded upon the shots we were trying to create. It also meant we had to protect the integrity of the camera with our coats etc. whilst it rained which, given the on and off nature of the rain showers, became time consuming and equally irritating. Fortunately, what boded as another problem, soon became an opportunity to advance our project. A group of local kids came across our filming area and, instead of causing a fuss, suggested Tom to go with them to scout around the abandoned factory with them as they were familiar to the area, so he went with them while me and Kieran guarded our equipment and looked over some filming notes.

After Tom explored the building and gave us numerous ideas to discuss. Soon we were inside and making the most of this hidden gem of a location. Inside we met a group of men who were doing a photography project who also advised us on the buildings interesting areas. We even managed to employ the use of two of them to be in our production as the two gave us masks, and actually brought their own gas masks which we thought would really embellish the post apocalyptic themes we are going for.  I was in many of the shots including the conversation, running away from the factory and action shots, whilst also doubling up as a cameraman when needed. Overall, the day went well and we got the work done that we had planed to, with the addition of another unexpected but great shot. We have learnt that improvisation in a location is very useful to come up with creative ideas to add to the trailer.

Production Shoot: 15/11/12

Thursday 15^th November

This time we filmed some dialogue as from a class feedback session on our rough cut, it was obvious that more narrative elements such as dialogue would be needed to firmly establish the narrative. So we filmed some lines in time for before it went dark. Then when it did go dark, we improvised and used a flashlight to act as a ‘search light’ which helped add to the atmosphere. I was in my role again, so I mostly just acted, but also helped to set up the shots and we came up with some ideas through improvising with the areas in the location that were available to us.

After this we went to a construction site where which we thought would add some more variety to the scenes. Here we again used a flashlight, and got some more lines with body language as well. This part of the filming went less smoothly, as we couldn’t hear the dialogue too clearly on the camera, but we will improve this by adding voice-overs if needs be. Like last time, I just acted in this part, but me and Tom brainstormed some ideas for dialogue and helped Kieran set the camera up appropriately.