On Saturday we had our real shoot. We implemented all the improvements we had decided to make after the teacher feedback. This meant several new shots as well as the added task of setting up the lighting. However the lighting made it look a lot better and the more realistic props also contributed to a much better mise-en-scene. The introduction of Lotus via the shadows in the window also looks a lot more dramatic as does the slow reveal of the man in the sequence.
Therefore I think the shoot went well.
My particular tasks in this shoot were:
Dressing the Set
Playing the role of the man
Setting up different shots and lighting
Checking the shot log to decide on the order of shots
Here is a behind the scenes video of us on our shoot:
Unfortunately I was only able to shoot a few shots as I was in the vast majority of them, however I checked all the set-ups and ran through the camera movements in rehearsals and was part of the decision on how the shot would be filmed.
Now we have to get on with editing our final piece...
Monday, 27 February 2012
Thursday, 23 February 2012
Animatic Reflections- Commentary
This commentary details my reflections on our animatic, and how it helped us prepare for our test shoot. It is a joint commentary with Nico.
Wednesday, 22 February 2012
Test Shoot and Edit
Our initial test shoot had to be cancelled due to issues with snow however this gave us time to work properly on our shot list and all the organization for the shoot. With the extra time given I created a shot list (to be scanned.)
As we were all away on a school trip to Hollywood over the half term we had to do our shoot two weeks later then our original date. Therefore we ended up doing it last Sunday. The shoot went well and we have since edited our footage into a rough cut.
The rough cut threw up a number of issues, the main one's being:
How we were going to make the gun sequence more dramtic/believable (script, sound effects, special effects, mae up etc)
The obsession with knives at the beggining
The breaking of the 30 degree rule
The placing of the titles and the fact that it should feel like the action is still happening behind the titles.
Correct Props and more shots e.g CU of money in briefcase (this also gives a match on action shot)
We are now working to correct these problems for the real shoot next Saturday.
As we were all away on a school trip to Hollywood over the half term we had to do our shoot two weeks later then our original date. Therefore we ended up doing it last Sunday. The shoot went well and we have since edited our footage into a rough cut.
The rough cut threw up a number of issues, the main one's being:
How we were going to make the gun sequence more dramtic/believable (script, sound effects, special effects, mae up etc)
The obsession with knives at the beggining
The breaking of the 30 degree rule
The placing of the titles and the fact that it should feel like the action is still happening behind the titles.
Correct Props and more shots e.g CU of money in briefcase (this also gives a match on action shot)
We are now working to correct these problems for the real shoot next Saturday.
Friday, 3 February 2012
Update
Since we finalised our film idea there has been a lot of progress, the most significant one being our animatic which is looking good and gives as a clear idea of where we are going with the shoot. Nico and I found a good track for the opening sequence however we had a few disagreements over the music-I wanted the digetic music to become non-digetic in the Hollywood scene but after discussions with the group/our teachers we decided against this and just to stop the music track earlier in the scene.
Secondly we talked about scripting concerns. The original draft script I wrote a while ago was completely useless now as the idea and style of the opening sequence has changed so much. Therefore we worked on a new script, where the only character to speak is the gangster while the assasin remains silent. At first Tash and I worked on an initial script with some basic ideas for speech such as "Why now, why right at the end?" and "One word of advice, get out while you can."
However we decided it probably didn't sound realsitic enough and so with the help of our technician who has knowledge in this area (the specialist terms, not the assasin/drug dealing buisness) wecame up with a more realistic script. However it contained strong language which although suited to our film was not good for a school project. As well as that we asked a few people in the other group their opinions and they found it a bit hard to understand terms like "a little green." However the script is still really good and with a few minor changes it should be fine.
Thirdly and finally I have been trying to watch similar films to ours to help inspire me personally. Nico has recommended several films to me and Tash that he has in mind so I am going to attempt to watch them before the shoot so we all have the same creative vision. These films are "Drive," "Bourne Supremacy" and "Kill Bill: Part II." This week I also watched Kill Bill Part I which helped me visualise what our character would be like (although ours is not driven by revenge.) The domestic scene in the kitchen also was similar to our idea and the conversation before Bill shot The Bride was similar to the type we are going for and helped inpsire me with the idea to only have the victim speaking and the assasin silent unlike in Kill Bill where Bill speaks while The Bride is mostly silent. Our teacher also recommended "Hanna" as an inspiration for these confrontational dialogue scenes so I will also try to watch this.
We are taking the equipment to my house today for Sunday's test shoot. We will spend an hour or so dressing the set then around 7 hours getting the footage.
Secondly we talked about scripting concerns. The original draft script I wrote a while ago was completely useless now as the idea and style of the opening sequence has changed so much. Therefore we worked on a new script, where the only character to speak is the gangster while the assasin remains silent. At first Tash and I worked on an initial script with some basic ideas for speech such as "Why now, why right at the end?" and "One word of advice, get out while you can."
However we decided it probably didn't sound realsitic enough and so with the help of our technician who has knowledge in this area (the specialist terms, not the assasin/drug dealing buisness) wecame up with a more realistic script. However it contained strong language which although suited to our film was not good for a school project. As well as that we asked a few people in the other group their opinions and they found it a bit hard to understand terms like "a little green." However the script is still really good and with a few minor changes it should be fine.
Thirdly and finally I have been trying to watch similar films to ours to help inspire me personally. Nico has recommended several films to me and Tash that he has in mind so I am going to attempt to watch them before the shoot so we all have the same creative vision. These films are "Drive," "Bourne Supremacy" and "Kill Bill: Part II." This week I also watched Kill Bill Part I which helped me visualise what our character would be like (although ours is not driven by revenge.) The domestic scene in the kitchen also was similar to our idea and the conversation before Bill shot The Bride was similar to the type we are going for and helped inpsire me with the idea to only have the victim speaking and the assasin silent unlike in Kill Bill where Bill speaks while The Bride is mostly silent. Our teacher also recommended "Hanna" as an inspiration for these confrontational dialogue scenes so I will also try to watch this.
We are taking the equipment to my house today for Sunday's test shoot. We will spend an hour or so dressing the set then around 7 hours getting the footage.
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