Production log -

Over the christmas holidays we were asked to develop three narrative ideas, mine are listed bellow...

13th February -

Pre-production began and we were put into groups based around the ideas we had, I am working with Jamie and Kira D. Together we put our ideas together, I suggested the idea that you can't escape fate, Kira suggested we could do a dream sequence that has brushes with reality, and Jamie wanted to have an evil force that wanted something from our protagonist, and they keep dreaming the same sequence until the force have evil has achieved what they wanted.

This was our first idea...


Thursday 14th February -

We put our idea forward, we were told that it had sounded similar to Happy death day. None of us had watched this film, but it meant that we needed to find a USP so we went back to brainstorming ideas. After much thought, we decided that we could do a twisted gameshow in  TV format, with a phycopathic host who has kidnapped five people that he believes has 'wronged' him. The contestants answer questions, if they answer correctly their death will become increasingly less painful. They answer wrong and they will die. We thought about how we would be able to convey feelings of death in a safe and controlled environment, we established five cutaways using surreal editing to suggest the outcome of the deaths.  These cutaways include; a gunshot that starts an F1 race, images of a knife cutting through celery, a kids animated tv show where a character is being hung

Friday 15th February -

We put our second idea forward, and we received positive feedback. It was noted that the idea of using surreal editing was effective because we were able to convey the deaths of our charcters using features of other tv shows, suggesting the idea that the viewer can't bear to see the gruesome deaths. Once we recieved feedback, we went location scouting, developed our characters and the reason for their deaths


Over the half term we had decided on who would do the tasks for pre-production, they were as follows...

Half term break

Monday 26th February -

Kira D wasn't ready to give us the script so we couldn't start filming yet, and decided to help another group. A t the time, it seemed like a good idea however i later realised that the time might of been better used finalising our pre-production work. we continued to help the other group untill we had a script to work from.

Tuesday 29th feburuary -

Kira finally gave us a script, it was late which meant it gave us little time to read through and make sure it was how we wanted it. we couldn't start filming yet as we didnt have written confirmation that we could use the orgianl set we had intended to use.

Wednesday 1st April -

We receieved written confirmation on the setting and began to film, Kira decided she wasnt going to come to filming which left Jamie and I to do it on our own.

Monday 6th April -

We were told that kira is going to drop the subject, although it became an inconvienece she was barley in lessons and refused to turn up to filming when we began so it wasnt a massive loss although it set us behind massivley.

Tuesday 7th april - We continued working through the script however i felt it was too robotic, so we made some compositional changes like bringing two contestants in at a time, this was done to make the film more dynamic and fluid.

Friday 10th April -
 we were told that we were no longer aloud to use our original location. W e went location scouting, using places we could go to over the easter holidays. We chose the college basement, Crane park, The circles and feltham cemetary. these were all perfect locations because they would help to give our film an eerie feel. Int the mean time we continued to work on pre production. By this poimnt i wa begginging to get frustrated and annoyed, and so was Jamie. We began to argue, however over easter we would get the filming we needed done

Easter break 

Over the easter break, whilst i continued working on the remaining pieces for our pre-production, i asked Jamie to edit the script and make it fit the new phone call format we had chosen. He did a really lazy job, which meant when we began to film we were more unprepared than we could have of ever been.

Filming- 

We chose to film on the wednesday, Firstly we met up at Feltham cemetery and shot the scenes with Doctor moore, we chose to use this location for the character, as we felt it matched the characters personality best; he is now surrounded by the lives he cost. In this shot we used the rule of thirds, which created depth in the shot but also revealed the location to the audience subtly. I felt this show was slightly over exposed because we were shooting in automatic, during editing this scene will be darkened with a filter to give the composition a colder feeling.However in reshoots i will adjust the aperture and shutter speed of the camera to get rid of the zebra lines that show through the lens.

Secondly, we walked down to Hanworth airparcs to film the scenes with Mathew, this location suited the character because they knew eachother as children and the place he is being held is where they would play as children. This is effective because it highlights how meaningful these people are to the main antaganist. Jamie (Mathew) sat on a ledge, which allowed the audience to take in the decaying background behind him, this was also an effective tool to show the length of the friendship.

Lastly, we walked to Crane Park to film scenes with Riley, noahs ex girlfriend. We chose to shoot by shot tower, implying that the tower is where she will be kept. Looking back, there might of been more effective places to film in this location like in the middle of the woods. This might of been a better choice because it would be away from the public and in darker conditions. Although the tower in the background creates depth and makes Riley appear insignificant.

We were unable to film the last few scenes because the actor we needed was not present, Jamie was meant to film it over the Easter break but was unable to contact the person untill after we came back to college.

22nd April -

I copied the files onto the student homework drive at college, with a copy for jamie, so we could begin editing using software like premier pro.

Editing - 

23 April -

I began working through the footage, sorting through what we could use and what we should delete. When i had taken the best clips, i imported them into a file on the student shared homework drive so i was able to acsess them using premier pro. When i had imported the clips, i began looking at the editing options availible. i considered adjusting lighting, highlights or shaddows, using filters to make my scenes look cold or bleached. When i thought about how i could use sound effectivley, i experimented with different effects that allowed me to make a voice deeper, higher or echo.

Whilst i was looking at the possible choices we had, Jamie was working on the introduction and cutaways. He downloaded the files from youtube, and imported them into premier pro. To begin with he had to cut the sequences to fit our film most effectivley. He had to adjust the size of the image using the panel, otherwise the image would be to small. The introduction monologue is important because it makes the audienec believe they understand the main charcater, which allows them to make a connection with the charchter.

24 April -

I continue to work on my edit of the film, Jamie wasnt in. I began to look at the basement scenes, i added a filter so the colours appeared cold and pale. The image seemed over exposed, so i adjusted the expossure of the shot to make it darker. I also adjusted the shadows and highlights so the background looked dark, decayed and mysterious. This is an effective choice because it makes the viewer feel symapthy fr the character as they would never want to be in that situation. The image cuts from a wide medium shot to a side angle shot to further show the audience the location.