Roles: who is what?

On the day of our shoot we are expected to take on the individual roles that make film making possible. These consist of; 

Director= the one responsible for organizing the actions of the crew and instructing the actors on set. 

Camera operator= person operating the camera- incharge of most camera movement, knows all about the camera and how it works. 

Editor= in post production once all footage is shot, the editor puts together each scene or shot in the sequence and creates the overall spectacle. 

Producer= the producer is what we, as a group, will do together. Seeing all aspects of the shoot

Art of photography= they are incharge of the props, set, location, costume, makeup etc. Again, as a group we will be covering all these things. 

To decide our roles within the process of filming we had a short discussion on who would suit each role given our strengths and weaknesses. We decided that:

SIENNA = DIRECTOR

SASKIA = CAMERA OPERATOR

DANNY = EDITOR 

However, on the shoot day we may end up helping each other out with each role.

This media production is a something we as a group collarbate on and it requires a division of labour in order to work as a team. Our specialised skills in each role are necessary to getting the right shot, correct genre conventions, and desired tone of our opening sequence. 

I was given the role of camera operator because I'm a quick learner and feel confident in using the equipment as well as carefully and responsibly.I have an overall understanding of the vision my group hopes to bring to live and I think I know how to capture this on camera. I also drew up the storyboard for our group after gathering the pictures from Danny and Sienna so I know the order of shots (which will likely change) well.

To prepare for the shoot, i will need to revisit the camera workshop we did and all the notes I collected from it. This is so i'm familiar with the rules and regulations and don't forget where everything is! I will also need to become familiar with our shot list and storyboard so I know which shot is next, that should help us timing wise as well. 

This role is important because I have to look after the camera and get the correct shots wanted by my group. There is some pressure if it doesn't come across the way we want it to look
on camera but I think i have a good enough eye and instrict to improvise incase. 

Costume/ makeup

We've had a number of discussions on costumes within our group, however this is a justified plan of what we plan on our cast to wear:

For the girl at the beginning we plan to dress her in a silver dress I have, the sort of one you'd wear to a club. Our back up is a black dress incase. 

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Hannah would have a lot of makeup on, leaning into the stereotype of a girl on a night out. We would put fake blood on her (from the people he's killed) and possibly on the dress. We have asked her if she will bring in some black or white shoes)

This is an email we sent her re the costume:

For Ted's costume our idea was a big jacket that stood out, either as a classic "badass" jacket that a villain would where, or to contrast, a jacket with a disney print on the back, or a pink fluffy colour- to give our character more of an appeal to an audience. 

These were some we found online:

We also asked Ted if he owned any cool jackets that could work well for the 'look' just t save money and time and getting the sizing right.

In terms of Raffies costume as well as the dead bodies we thought smart and all black would be most appropriate. 

Props

We need to find more props for our set in order for it to look like a club. So we are searching for items such as:

• 2 fake hammers
• 1 real hammer
• beer bottles + wine glasses
• rings

Here is how we have achieved this:

Danny bought 2 hammers online, and I'm going to provide the real hammer for closeups(so it looks realistic) 

We are going to collect empty beer bottles and wine glasses from homes and people who can provide them. 

The rings with either be ordered, or we will use the same one for each shot.

Something like this:

Shoot schedule

 

We made a shoot schedule in order to keep track of everything and be organised for the shoot.

Before our shooting day, on the 7th we are going to set up the club. 

 

 

Call sheet

Today we created a call sheet because we need to have all the personal information for the cast and to help organise us on the day 

 8th March 

Crew/cast	Time they’re needed	House	Email
Ted Jackson	From 9:30	Ewhurst tutor	Ted.Jackson@hurtwood.net
Hannah Orman	From 9:30	Day	hannah.orman@hurtwood.net
Raffie McD	From 9:30	Bea Webb	R.Mackenzie-Donavon
Sienna	8:30 onwards	Ewhurst	Sienna.friend@hurtwood.net
Danny	8:30 onwards	Ewhurst	Danny.Barta@hurtwood.net
Saskia	8:30 onwards	Ewhurst	Saskia.pattinson@hurtwood.net

Foley Sound...

Today we looked at Foley sound. This is likely to be important in our opening sequence after our we've shot our footage, especially as we have violent and gory moments. 

Foley sound is commonly referred to by filmmakers as everyday sound effects made in post production. It's used to improve the audio quality and enhance certain sounds that could have been lost in the production process.

The sounds are usually made in professional studios as you need good acoustics and an ambient space when recording these sounds. They are created by us, people mimicking the sounds given from bit of the film or video they want to replicate. 

Here is how I made Foley sound at home:

I used my oven to mimic the sound of the kids' backs hitting the metal.

I used my dog's growl (a paid actor) as the dinosaur

And my front door as the door. 

Using this clip from Jurassic Park, I recorded my own:

You can watch my version using this link:

https://youtube.com/shorts/qaqwbhc8T8I?feature=share

Stroy board

This is the storyboard I drew and painted for our group, we combined our skills by firstly, sectioning the scenes and drawing simple stick men for each shot. I was then sent Danny and Sienna's drawings which I re-did whilst they did the writing that explained the shots.

Here is my final draft:

Location:

For our location, we would like to shoot our sequence in the studio at school. We can turn it into a club and create atmosphere with supplied LED lights, music, and people, dead people.

Here is a picture of our location before it's been done up:

Here is a picture of our backup incase anything happens on the day or our space becomes unavailable: 

This is the sort of vibe we aspire to create except toned done a lot due to our lack of bugdet.

Making of the story board

 When designing our story board we had to think, in detail, what each shot would look like, e.g. what angle?

I was assigned group drawer however to make it a group effort Danny and Sienna sent me their attempts at each shot, which were just about clear enough to work out. 

I then began drawing the board myself, in more detail, and they did the description of each shot .

I enjoyed the process of making it, although it was tough as when we would discuss the order as a group there were always changes to what type of shot or which one came first.

I also kept confirming the shots with Danny and Sienna because although we were very likely to change it on the day we had to get a very specific/ step by step storyboard. 

I then started drawing my own:

Test shoot for cast..

When trying to assign the actress we thought it would be a good idea to do a test shoot for the actress before we casted her.

She kindly agreed. These were the pictures as well as the video we took of Hannah, and after this we all came to the agreement that she was what we were looking for to fit our vision. 

Casting: what we'd like..

In our lesson today, we began discussing who we would cast in our sequence and why. This was when we first brought our vision together for our protagonist. 

Casting

We want a male actor, preferably with a muscly back and ideally someone that doesn't look like a 17 year old. With a setback of not being able to cast the year above us, we brainstormed the boys in our year. Casting off the teachers, as we couldn't think of any that fit the look.

Then after a few days of searching around school, we found ourselves with no one. We began disagreeing on certain people due to; looking too young, strange haircuts, or someone who doesn't act. 

So we spoke to our teacher and he convinced us that having a teacher would make it more realistic and avoid it looking tacky. We finally agreed on two different looking teachers that would make two very convincing villains. 

We ended up emailing one of my house tutors, Ted Jackson, and came up with Ezra (drama teacher) as a backup incase Ted wasn't available. This is the email that we sent:

We also had to cast our female character, so we emailed two girls in our year who we thought looked older and would give a convincing performance of someone petrified! However, we wanted to see how they came across on camera so kindly asked them if we could test that. We also had a 3rd backup in mind just in case. 

Here are the emails exchanged that we sent Hannah and Bea to request a test shoot with them:

Hannah:

Bea:

Bea's reply:

Hannah replied verbally to us in school and we sorted out a time. 

Then we sent an email to Raffie (he has a beard) asking if he would play our crawling victim who gets his head smashed - we informed him no heads will really be smashed in our sequence:

We now await our filming date to let our cast know- so that we can adjust if not free.