We filmed the inside shots first as lunch time was still calming down and we wanted the outside shots to be quiet and the focus to be on the actor only and this would not have been possible during the lunch break. We took around 3 takes of each shot, sometimes more where dialogue from the actors part was concerned. When we first got into the room we set up the camera in each individual place where it would need to be for the shots to see if there was anything on screen we didnt want. we had to move some of the items off of the desk and move a chair out of the room to make enough room for the camera and its operator, kyle to fit in. The filming was fairly easy and took around an hour which I thought was good as we had a firm set out plan to work to from both the story board and the script. This meant that as soon as we got into the room Kyle the camera operator, knew exactly where to go and what angle to film at so my job as director was fairly easy as things ran fairly smoothly. The boys acting were fairly chatty and therefore there were quite a few 'gag reel' takes as they liked to call it, but i managed to keep the situation under control and get the shots i wanted. The filming process was enjoyable, fun and overall a great success although Lily could not be there to help with it.
There were a few problems that we encountered when filming. The main problem was that we had not realised that the place we had chose to shoot our first shot in had a large extractor fan nearby for the college kitchens and therefore made filming slightly difficult as the actors voice in a few of the takes was muffled or undetected by the microphone on the camera. This was a mistake made during our recee and therefore when we proceed with the main task we will make sure that our recee is completely correct before hand to ensure nothing like this happens again. This also meant that we had to slightly alter the dialogue of the script so that when the actor answered the phone he had to explain that he couldn’t hear the other person but would be there soon as the sound was obviously diegetic and therefore we could not ignore it in the actual production. Another problem that we encountered was that when we filmed the last shot of Lee unconscious through the window we found to begin with that Kyle’s reflection was visible on the footage and therefore we had to cover as much of his skin as possible to help him blend into the dark walls, but luckily he had a black hoody and dark jeans on. We also were unable to alter the lights in the media room as they were set bulb strip lights and therefore the only control we had was allowing natural light in through the window which we chose to keep the curtains closed.
I think that we stuck to the script and storyboard almost exactly apart from the minor change we had to make in the first shot in terms of dialogue due to the fan. And seeing the finished and edited product it has turned out how I imagined it in my head when we first started planning it and drawing out the storyboards and I think that we also stuck to the rule of thirds when we were in the room and the actors were having their conversation very well, making sure we never crossed the line. Next time however I think that we should use the tripod, for the shots where the 180 degree rule applies, such as conversation as we did get a few takes that were shaky that we had to cut a few seconds out of, but this was due to the fact that the room we chose to shoot in was small and there was not much space to move around in, but we captured the shots we wanted through not using the tripod, however next time we will defiantly use it to create a more professional looking piece of film.
We originally planned to edit our filming the next lesson, but unfortunately Lee was ill during that lesson and so we were unable to get the equipment required and had to wait until the next lesson when Lily had also come back from being ill. The editing process was fairly easy and only took around 40 minutes once we had captured and transferred the footage onto the computer. We worked together as a group while editing, to include all of our opinions in the process so that we were all going to be happy with the final outcome. We used the editing program Windows Movie Maker to put our final piece together and I found the software easy to use, as I had previously used this software at GCSE Media to edit together a stop motion advert. I also find this software good to use as it is simple and easy to work your way around, but still giving a professional finished product and I am happy with the final piece for the preliminary exercise but feel I have learnt a lot ready for the main task which will help improve the quality of the main task even more. I think that watching the edited version of the film back, it is overall good, keeps continuity and would be easy to follow and understand by our target audience of 16-24, due to the visual cues we have included and the way we have created college students who are relatable. The ideology that youth's are also involved in crime is also shown through this film and therefore the audience will not be shocked or confused by what's happening. We used a fade in from black at the beginning to give a sense of oreintation for the audience so that it didnt launch straight into the film and we tried to cut on action as much as possible to keep the flow between cuts smooth and as least noticeable as possible.
This is a final edit of our preliminary exercise that has been compressed and uploaded onto the Weymouth college Youtube channel. Overall I am happy with our finished sequence of shots and am pleased with the way the filming went as we didn’t encounter many problems at all as we decided to keep our storyline simple but keeping orginiality while sticking to the codes and conventions of social realist drama. Anything that did happen that went wrong during both filming and editing, we were able to resolve as a group quickly and efficiently and in many ways it made out producion skills stronger .
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