Day 5 of Filming

Tuesday 29th December 2015

Today’s filming session consisted of filming the detective walking to the door and knocking on it with a slow dolly movement (of which we shall experiment with to try different angles and choose which looks best), the cigarette credit scene and also the dolly towards the hat stand.

The first shot we did was the cigarette being lit and for this we took the camera and placed it in front of a clear white wall. We also took into account the aspect ratio and ensured that the cigarette was in the centre and that the zippo lighter was also in the centre so we would see it in the frame.

The second shot we did that was of the hat stand was done dollying sideways, similar to a crab shot. We experimented with the lighting and held the light at different angles and different positions, and whilst filming, we experimented with moving the camera along with the dolly moving. The shots didn’t take too long and so when we finished, we packed up and set it up again outside for the last shot of the day.

The last shot was of the detective walking up to the door and going through it to knock on the main door of the house. We tried the dolly going at a forward movement with the camera facing diagonally to face the detective walking to the door, and to ensure that we didn’t get any contradictory objects in the shot that would juxtapose the plan of the film being set in the 1940’s. After a couple of shots of the dolly moving forward, we rearranged it at a more diagonal angle and tried that. I found that t was quite difficult to move the dolly at the same speed throughout the shot and I had to be careful not to accidentally knock the tripod or run it over a bumpy part of the ground and so we had to make these checks to make the shot work properly. The last angle we tried was the dolly being on the side and going from right to left whilst the detective walks forwards towards the door. We filmed this scene last as it was just getting darker and it is when we filmed the other shots of the detective being by the door and so it would suit the continuity.

The next day of filming will be the 2nd of January and that will involve just me going to my Aunt’s house to film one shot of the dressing table to complete the credits and tie up the whole film.

Day 4 of Filming

Monday 28th December 2015

Today, was not planned and it wasn’t in our shooting schedule, however we decided that we would film today because it was convenient  enough for everyone to go to Molly’s house and do some extra bits. We went to Molly’s house at 11:30am and started filming at 12:00pm. We first did the cigarette shot where Ben was holding the cigarette in front of the camera and with the zippo lighter, lit it. We only had part of the cigarette in and the top of the lighter and the flame in. We had to take into account the frame of the shot and so we had to ensure the props were directly in the centre so that they would fit into the 4:3 frame scale.

The next shot we did was of the newspaper. For this, we went into Molly’s kitchen and placed the newspaper, a small coffee cup and saucer and a pair of old glasses onto the wooden table. We then put the camera on the tripod an adjusted the tripod to the highest it could go. We used the handle on the tripod to point the camera directly down at the table. We took a few shots of some different angles and tested it all out, and then we filmed the layout on the table for four seconds, and then Ben, the detective was seen picking the newspaper and leaving the shot.

The last thing we did was use the dolly to do a slow sideways movement across the room showing the hat stand. We also turned off all the lights and used the big light to create an authentic shadow of the coat on the stand. However this was only to see how well it would turn out, because unfortunately we didn’t have the hat and so we will film that when we film tomorrow. Here is the light that we used in filming:

Lucy (2014)

On Christmas Day, I decided not to watch a Christmas film, but to watch the film Lucy, which was directed by Luc Besson. The film stars Scarlett Johansson, Morgan Freeman, Amr Waked and Choi min-sik.

The film is about a 25 year old student named Lucy who is in studying in Taiwan. She gets into a short term relationship with a man, not realising that he is in a troublesome situation and ends up dragging her into it out of fear. She ends up being told that she must deliver a mysterious suitcase to someone, not knowing what she is in for. The male character gets killed and Lucy is dragged upstairs in the hotel where she has been asked to deliver the suitcase. She is kidnapped by a gang on foreign drug dealers and use her as a subject for their test. When it comes to revealing what is in the suitcase, it turns out to be four clear plastic packets filled with strange blue crystals. We see a subject being brought out to see what effect the crystals have and ends up getting shot by someone out of annoyance. We then see that there are three new subjects that have been brought out, four including Lucy. They are drugged and operated on and are then told that each of the subjects have one of the plastic packets inside their body. They have a new passport and are sent back to their home.

Between these scenes of seeing what is happening with Lucy, the viewers are diverted to scenes of Morgan Freeman, who plays Professor Norman, who is an author and is giving a lecture about his work to students in what seems to be a university hall. He is explaining about how humans can only access 10% of their brain, and he compares the limit of our knowledge with 10% access to our cerebral areas to a dolphin’s, which can use 20% of their brain capacity. Dolphins can therefore use a sonar system which allows them to detect vibrations and hear things from far away. Humans can only access up to 10% and therefore if we could access more than this, we would begin to develop skills and abilities such as telepathy and telekinesis.

We then go back to Lucy, who is slowly get affected by the drug, as the packet is broken inside of her and she starts to experience the effects of the drug which allows her to use 20% of her brain. She then goes to a hospital to get it removed and then tells the doctors that the drug is CPH4, which is usually only produced in small quantities during pregnancy because it ensures that the baby’s bones grow well and can function when it grows more. She then learns that without more of the drug she will not live for as long as she could. So she takes the other three packets from the three subjects. She gains help from a police officer and also contacts Professor Norman on his studies and knowledge about accessing more than 20% of the brain. As she takes more of the drug, she has access to more of the cerebral capacity and is almost reaching 100%. As she gets closer to the end she begins to change into a black substance and disappears into a space continuum to when life first started. She begins to learn of how the world started and everything about it. As she reaches 100%, the only thing that is left of her are her clothes and the black substance, which is like a computer of knowledge. The computer is then morphed into a memory card that Professor Norman takes away to learn about the world. The film ends with Lucy saying that “life was given to us a billion years ago. Now you know what to do with it.”

I really liked this film because not only was it informative about science and knowledge and the world around us, there was also action and a bit of romance as well. The film was made really well and I thought that the actors were chosen really well, especially Scarlett Johansson and Morgan Freeman. I would definitely recommend this film to anyone because it’s interesting and it keeps the viewer engaged in it.

Day 3 of Filming

Wednesday 23rd December 2015

Today, because Molly and I had plans of our own, Ben and Finlay offered to film some shots. The shots were of the detective walking down a narrow alley way. This not only conformed to the edgy, mysterious atmosphere of Film Noir, but also looked even more authentic as they put the camera at a canted angle. This gave a sense of unease an echoed the dark gloomy setting. They did many takes of the shot and also did some extra shots with a focus pull that pulled into focus when the detective started walking down the alley way. The camera was also very close to the ground and so we mostly saw a close up of he detective’s feet and legs when he walked and then we eventually come to see his whole body as he moves further and further away. With the camera being on the ground, it meant that we would almost be looking up at the detective, and so this establishes authority and importance. This is good because the detective is an important character and we wanted to portray this through this type of shot. Because Molly and I were not present at the time, I can’t say much about what happened and what was discussed during filming. However we shall further be talking about it when it comes to our next day of filming, which will be the 28th of December.

Day 2 of Filming

Tuesday 22nd December 2015

Today, Finlay, Anabel (our actress) and I all went to Molly’s house at 11:00am. I went to Anabel’s house to pick up the dolly, as her group had finished with it. I then went to meet Molly and Finlay at hers. Ben was struggling to get to her house for the time we all went there so we decided that he could come a bit later and do his bit of filming.

For today, Anabel was wearing a red dress, black tights, winged eyeliner, light mascara, red nails and red lipstick. She was also wearing black shoes and she made her hair wavy/curly so that it suited to the style of the typical femme fatale.

 

Today we took on the roles of different things. Ben was an actor, the detective in the film, Molly was in charge of holding the microphone in the right place to get the sound right, Finlay was in charge of counting in the actors if they had dialogue and also hearing what was being said and pressing the recorder. I was the camera operator and the director. We all however directed together, because Molly had the storyboards and showed Anabel and Ben what scene we were doing and Finlay was the main person we went to if we wanted to know if the lighting was right and if the shot looked good enough. Ben and Anabel were very good at acting and they took our constructive criticism into account and listened to what we had to say, which was very helpful and made filming a lot easier. If we had used real actors or relatives who don’t usually act to film, we wouldn’t have been as comfortable in telling them what to do.

We didn’t do the shots in chronological order, we did them in which was the easiest to do so we could get them out of the way first.  For the time that Ben was not there, we filmed a scene where Anabel was the applying lipstick and also brushing her hair with a comb.

When Ben arrived, we filmed the dialogue parts of the film. We had to change some of the angles of shots and also add in a few shots to ensure that the continuity matched up and that there weren’t any errors. The first scene that we filmed was Anabel walking to the door to open it for the detective, whom we see silhouetted through the door itself. We did three takes of that, and then moved onto the second shot which was Ben, the detective, knocking on the door. This was done a couple of times, as it was filmed outside and of course, there was the struggle of cars driving past which created noise that could easily be heard through the microphone. To ensure this didn’t happen as often, Molly stood by the main road whilst I filmed and Finlay held the microphone rod and recorder.

The third scene we filmed was the two shot of Anabel and Ben doing the first two lines of dialogue. This was filmed behind Anabel at a slight off centre angle.The first two lines of dialogue included the detective asking the femme fatale is she had heard anything about recent events around the area, and the femme fatale replying that she had heard something about them recently. We then proceeded to doing an over the shoulder shot of the last two lines of dialogue which was about the detective asking the femme fatale to elaborate on her knowledge of information and then her asking him to come into her house so that she could tell him more about it, however he does not realise that she is part of the crime and she will seduce him away from his case and towards her. For this scene,  did a focus pull that went from the detective being in focus when he spoke, then focusing onto the femme fatale when she spoke. I thought that this was a really subtle but effective technique to use and it made the shot look a lot more appropriate to be in a film. We then filmed the femme fatale inviting him in, and then looking out the door to make sure no one saw, and then her closing it. This is where the film will end. The scenes took some time to film and we had to do a lot of takes for them, but we got all the footage required for today’s day of filming.

The next day of filming will be next Tuesday, as we are missing out the days that are close to Christmas and family related.

Day 1 of Filming.

Sunday 20th December, 2015.

This is was the first day of filming. Finlay, Ben and I travelled to Molly’s house to film the first few scenes of the credits. We first filmed the hat stand, and for this we went upstairs with all the equipment and set it up. Finlay set up the lighting and Molly and I set up the camera and tripod. We then got to filming. I put the back leg of the tripod lower than the rest of them so it would give us a low angle shot of the hat stand. This then allowed us to get a better shadow when we moved the light around the room.

We then went out and bought some olives for the cocktail glass shot. We got the martini glass and bought some simple green olives. We then talked about what colour the liquid was in a cocktail so we would know what we could use to make it look authentic. I looked up “cocktails” on Google images and found that some are red and some are just clear liquid. We decided that we would use clear liquid because red was more exotic and not very effective for our style of film. We then got a cocktail stick and put two olives in it and placed it in the cocktail glass, in which we poured water into. When it came to filming it, we experimented with different angles of lighting which created different shadows. I also experimented with the focus and did shots of the cocktail glass being out of focus and then focusing it in slowly.

The next shots we have to concerning the credits of the film, is the lipstick of the femme fatale being twisted up, the cigarette being lit and finally the dressing table (not in this order). This will be done on Tuesday 22nd December, when we also hope to shoot the dialogue of the film with our femme fatale, Anabel Coupland.

Shooting Schedule

We decided , as a group that we would leave the shooting schedule until we knew what equipment we could use and when we were free ourselves. We took out days such as Christmas eve, Christmas day, Boxing day, New years eve and New years day. We also had days where we were doing things with family/friends and also other activities. This left quite a few days for us to film and so we needed days where we could swap equipment with other groups as well. We decided on this list of days as a finalised outline of days for filming,

Sunday 20th December 2015– Filming part of the credits (cocktail glass, hat stand)

Tuesday 22nd December 2015– Getting the dolly track from another group, filming dialogue scenes, extra shots, part of the credits (lipstick)

Wednesday 23rd December 2015– Finlay and Ben filming detective walking down the alley way to go to Femme fatale’s house.

Tuesday 29th December 2015– Filming newspaper shot, dolly shot for credits, detective walking scene, part of credits (cigarette shot)

Saturday 2nd January 2016– me filming the last of the credits (dressing table)

We may have some problems with the shooting schedule, however I hope it goes well for our group and that we don’t have to cancel filming plans and make new ones, as it may be a convenience for us all, especially as we all live in three different locations. However, we shall be sticking to the shooting schedule and hopefully, by the end of the holidays we will have finished filming everything, plus extra small things to ensure we have enough film to use, and so we can go back to school and start editing straight away.

Equipment for filming

As the holidays have started, so has filming. As we have such a big class and a lot of groups, we must split the special equipment, such as the big dolly, small dolly, lights etc, up. Every group gets a camera, a tripod and a microphone rod and recorder. These things are essential to filming as of course we need to see the film and also record sound that we choose to add in, whether it is diegetic or non diegetic. Here are some images of the equipment we collected for the first part of our filming, before we collect more equipment from other groups:

This is the tripod. We will use this for every shot and can be adjusted to move up, down, left right and at certain angles for a dutch tilt if we choose to use one, which for my group is useful. The height of the tripod can also be adjusted and so can be used for high angle shots or low angle shots, depending on the height of the legs of the tripod.

Here is the equipment for the microphone:

Here is the lighting equipment that we will use. This is very important for our film as it will allow us to create shadows and will follow the style of Film Noir.

 

Props: Dressing Table

The last of the props that we will be using in the credits of the start of the film, will be a dressing table. The dressing table had to be fairly old fashioned so it echoed the time from when our film is supposed to be set.  Originally, we were going to use Molly’s mum’s drawers with a mirror on it, but then I remembered that at my Aunt’s house, she had a dressing table that belonged to my Grandma. So, I went to her house to see if it was appropriate to use. I found that it was in fact perfect for our film. The dressing table was the perfect size and it had three mirrors on it, two small and one bigger mirror in the centre of the two. The table already had some jewellery on it and so this made it look even better for the film, however I will have to put some older ornaments on the table as well to emphasise the age of the objects and so it will look older. The style of the dressing table is also very old and is very authentic for our film. I took some pictures and showed them to my group and they were approved of. When it comes to filming, because I live near my Aunt, I can easily go over to her house with the camera and tripod and film some shots of the dressing table.  Here are the images I took:

 

 

 

Cocktail Glass Picture

For the cocktail glass ident, we decided to take an actual picture of a cocktail glass with film reel around it instead of trying to animate it. So, I asked my mum to get a cocktail glass from her work place and I brought it in to school. We also got some film reel from an assistant in Media and we sellotaped it together and wrapped it round the glass. We used a box with black lining in it and placed the glass in it. The sides of the box were translucent and so we could shine light through the sides and create shadows from different angles depending on where we put the light is. We used the cameras that we use for filming and we took pictures of the cocktail glass. Here are some pictures of the set up and the glass being in the box:

The end result of the pictures were really good and Finlay has uploaded the picture from my SD card onto the Mac. I drew around the outline of the shape of the whole thing and cut it out from the original background. This allowed us to put the picture of the cut out glass onto a fully black background and then Finlay started to put the “REEL” text in the background. However he found it difficult to put the text behind it and so he tried to do it underneath. Outside of school we talked about whether it would look better behind the glass or underneath it. However, we shall be further discussing it and seeing what we can do.