Preliminary Task: Record Scratch

Overall, I think that we produced our film very well and that we overcame all the problems we faced, such as losing one of our shots to a corrupted. One of the problems with it I feel, is when there is a tilt down of me, the camera hesitates slightly as it does it. I also feel that the handheld camera section does not work as well as it should have and is very juddery. I think we did the shot-reverse shot very well as we made the audiotrack seem whole as we switched between shots, we selected appropriote shots for different sections of dialouge and we didn't break the 180 degree rule.

Preliminary Editing 2

Today, for the next part of editing, we asked Oliver and Shaun to take control because they had not been involved directly in it yet. Firstly, they altered the length of the video and audio tracks so that the camera switched partway through dialouge. Next, they went throughthe entire audio and lowered it where it peaked at levels which may be damaging to the ears. Next, they took out the outtake as we all agreed that it was irrelevant. We then exported it to an AVI file and viewed it. We were confused at first as the player played it in 4:3 rather than the 16:9 that we filmed it it. We then realised that there was nothing wrong with the file and that 4:3 was the default viewing ratio for the player. We tried to upload it to Blogger but then realised that it exceeded the maximum capacity allowed by the site. We then re-exported it into a H.264 file and tried to upload it again. But when it finished, it was displayed strangely distorted and in negative. Instead we decided to upload it to YouTube and embed it into our blogs.

Preliminary Editing

Last monday, Sophie and I used Adobe Premier Pro to edit the film during the lesson. Shaun and Oliver's job was to find suitable music and sound for the film and also to photograph the storyboards and mindmap to upload. Sophie and I first had problems editing because the computer's version of the software had a glitch which wouldn't allow us to play back our clips. After we diagnosed the problem, we used a different computer and carried on. We put the clips in the order we wanted from the best shots we had, cut parts from the beginning and end of it and deleted some of the diegetic sound in them which we thought was unsuitable. Afterwards we inserted the song 'Dude looks like a Lady' - Aerosmith, a record scrattching sound effect and a piece of music called Cantina band remix. We also thought it would be suitable to include one of our outtakes in the credits.

Preliminary Storyboards and Brainstorm

Preliminary Filming

On friday, we took out cameras to film our story. Firstly, I checked the white balance on the camera, checked the DV tape and made sure it was filming in widescreen 16:9. We attached a tripod and took it out to our first filming location. We filmed Sophie walking repeatedly from various angles including from the side and from the front. We had to take many shots as it was difficult for me, replacing the absent Oliver, to pan across Sophie equally without it seeming jumpy. We then filmed a tilt up of Sophie at the door and a close up of her hand opening the door. We then filmed the cutaways which are intended to break up Sophie's shots. To do this scene I dressed up in a checkered shirt and put on glasses. We also borrowed a teacher's laptop to do this scene. Shaun then became the camera operator for the following shots. Our first shot was a tilt down showing me using the laptop. Secondly, we did an over the shoulder shot of me using the laptop to come up with ideas for valentines day. We then filmed Sophie using handheld camera come into the room, sit across from me and us exchanging dialouge. At this point Oliver returned from his exam and became the camera operator. After reattaching the tripod, we filmed the dialouge again twice over my shoulder of Sophie, twice as a close up of Sophie's face, twice over Sophie's shoulder of my face and finally twice as a close up of my face. Afterwards, we took the DV Tape out of the camera and captured it onto the computer. We realised that one of our first shots of Sophie was corrupted and realised we either had to refilm it or work out a way around it. Next lesson we are going to edit our film together.

Preliminary Planning

We were shown by Mr. Mitchell a short film which teaches methods of reverse shot and included information about establishing shots and the 180 degree rule. Afterwards, my group and I started the storyboards and had the idea of filming parts of Sophie's body as she walks along the corridor. We changed the idea of having Sophie as a 'Nerd' and changed her character to that of a 'chav, slag'. However my character would remain a 'nerd'. We tried filming some of our shots to see if they would be successful; they were. After that, we finished the draft storyboard and will probably begin filming next lesson. Our plot is that Sophie walks into the room where I am sitting, looking for Valentine's day ideas, and breaks up with me. We may also need to re-do the storyboard as it is currently messy and confusing. I need to remember to bring in a pair of glasses and a shirt for next lesson.

Planning Preliminary Task

I have been placed in group with Sophie, Shaun and Oliver to do the preliminary task. We discussed the roles in filming and decided that Sophie and I would be actors in this, Shaun would be costume designer and director while Oliver would be the camera man and be in charge of props. Then we discussed the plot and decided that Sophie and I would both apply to the 'nerd' stereotype. I would already be in the room when Sophie would walk in and then break up with me. We created part of a spider diagram with ideas on it.