Our Final Film Opening

"Its awesome"-Lisa
"I want to see more, its amazing"-Lauren
"The mood and cinematography is great. Quite lovely. Those titles could use some work"-John
"It's amazing"-Ivory
"Loved the mood"-Vin
"It was lovely"-Mandy
"Bought tears to my eyes and a lump to my throat-loved it. The cinematography was brilliant"-Ann
"Absolutely loved it, a superb piece" Kay
"It was emotional"-Liz
"Amazing camera work and very emotional" -Pauline
"Very adorable, want to see more!" - Beth
 

Rough Cut 3

The narration is defiantly needed to give the piece more narrative and make it more interesting. 

There was also the opinion that the titles were too far in the corner. When we tried to rectify this, we found the titles to sit too far into the frame so we cannot change this issue. 

Good consideration of location. 



Rough Cut 1 and 2 Of Our Film Opening

Rough Cut 1


Rough Cut 2


Feedback:
Rough Cut 1: Some lovely shots, especially the close up of shells. Slight wobble on the camera during the film title. I'm not convinced that the audience will know that the writing in the sand is your actual film title. It tells a story (even without sound). Lovely production logos.

Rough Cut 2: The voiceover is too much - you need a voiceover in there to explain the story but you need less words - it is too wordy, cut it right down. Re-record this on a camera so the sound quality is better. The music is good and sets a scene. Lovely use of transitions. The pan across the beach and girls faces is brilliant. Can the non diegetic music start as the second production logo is about to leave the screen.
Are you having sound for the production logos?
Narrator spoke too fast.
White around the text is annoying.
Beautifully shot.

Thoughts from the group:
As a group we thought that the narration was too wordy for the opening two minutes and was delivered too quickly to be effective. We thought we should cut down parts of it and have the voice over at a slower pace. We also noted a few wobbles of the camera to be cut down and also a shot that was wonky. In our thrid draft we hope to rectify these issues in order to improve our film opening.

Marketing and Exhibition

After considering which type of institute would distribute our film, I decided to consider how we would market and then exhibit our film. 

In order to get our film out to as many people as possible, posters and trailers would be the best option for our film as there would be limited merchandise we could sell. Drama films do not often sell things such as t-shirt and toys to the audience and instead relies heavily on where the posters are placed and when the trailer is shown. I designed a poster for our film, keeping a slight mystery about the film. It consists of the two main actors standing by the sea with the title above their heads. This keeps any spoilers away and does not hint at any events within the film but the simplicity will spark an audiences interest and  provoke them to ask questions about the film and then to go and watch it. 

Exhibition would be the sale of DVD's. As our company is an independent company the use of blue-ray would be too expensive. I also designed a DVD cover that hints more at what the film is about, with the surviving character Amy looking sad and upset with her best friend Katie looking away into the distance. The same picture from the poster is also used on the front of the DVD to make sure people know it is the same film. The use of white and light colours highlights the dark clothing of our actors which will connote to the audience something bad happens which is the only hint as to what might occur in the film.

Posted by Hayley

Diary of Filming

17/03/13

We started filming at 9.30am. The first shot we filmed was a mid shot of the two actors walking towards the sea, we had to set up the tri-pod to the correct height so the two actors looked right in the frame. We filmed this shot twice to ensure that we had enough footage when it comes to editing. The second shot we filmed was when the two girls walked past the camera at a mid shot, we had to film this shot a few times as when we first filmed it the camera was not at the right angle and was too high up.

The next shot we filmed was when the two actors came into the frame from either side of the camera and walked away from the away the camera, this started off as a mid shot and ended up as a long shot.

We wanted an extreme long shot of the two actors walking along the beach. Originally we intended to film this shot from the pier but when we arrived on location a shot from the pier would have been too far away and the two actors would have been completely unrecognisable. Instead we filmed it from the top of a wall, which created the shot we had in mind.

An idea we had on set after studying the shot list we decided to add in a pan shot as this would help scenes flow together better and create a more professional look. To start off with we had to loosen the tri-pod so the camera could panned smoothly, however we did encounter a problem as sometimes the movement was not very smooth and jolted the camera, so this meant we had to film this shot multiple times.

After filming the pan shot and all the other shots on the shot list we decided to film some extra scenes such as a mid shot of the two actors talking whilst sitting on the beach steps. We did this to make sure we had enough footage when it comes to editing.

We filmed all of the scenes that involved the two actors first so they could leave earlier and not be waiting around. After we had completed all of the shots with the two actors in we filmed the extra shots that involve the scenery and wildlife. We had to film a close up shot of the waves. At one point we had to take the camera off of the tri-pod, as the tri-pod did not go down low enough, in order to get a lower perspective shot. Originally we planned to get a close-up shot of seagulls but we couldn't get close enough to them so as a compromise we used a mid-shot instead. Our final shot of our opening is a shot of a seagull in flight, this proved to be quite difficult to achieve, but in the end we managed to achieve the long shot of a seagull flying.

Posted by Abby P and Hayley

Film Schedule

This film schedule enables the actors to know what they are doing and what scene is being filmed at what point. It also keeps the group and the actors organised as they will know when each scene is going to be shot, who is needs to be in that shot and what equipment will be needed. It will also help us get everything shot as quickly and as smoothly as possible.


Film Schedule by AbbyPotts

Posted by Abby P

Health and Safety Precautions Whilst Filming

We will need to consider several safety precautions whilst filming to ensure the safety of our actors.

-Actors nor crew can go into the sea.
-As actors are under 16, they should stay with a member of the crew at all times.
-Actors will be provided with approprite clothing for the weather, ie an umbrella should it rain, when not on screen to prevent as best as possible any illness that it could potentially cause.
-Crew should take care and precautions when filming on uneven surfaces such as stones.
-We will need to ask permission of anyone who is in the shot by accident and has therefore not given consent.
-We must take care of the enviroment we are filming in, meaning we should not leave any litter after we have finished filming and left the location.
-We will try to not to get in the way of the general public and will keep noise levels to a minimum and if we are asked to move away, we will.
-If questioned of our intentions we will make sure we have evidence to provide that we are genuinley making a film opening for our Media coursework.

Posted by Abby P and Hayley