21/10/2011 - Weather for filming

Before we filmed our first complete shots for our film trailer on the 24th October, we decided to look up the weather for this day. As it shows here on the BBC weather website, it says that it would be raining and on the day of shooting the weather was sunny and warm. We found that during filming there was shadows created by the trees on the ground, so when we were editing the film in a darker colour the shadows counteracted the idea of darkness. Next time we film, we will make sure that the weather is suitable and choose a later time of day where it is naturally darker.

18/10/2011 - Initial Filming of 'The Friends'

Here are the first trial shots of the other characters in our film trailer, Lily's friends. We filmed this clips on the 9th of October over the space of a few hours as you will notice the difference in lightness of the day. This is relevant because, Lily's friends are returning home after the night before and during this pivotal moment in the trailer they find her phone and soon find themselves involved in the game. 
Problems:
We had some issues with film due to our camera not being charged we have to film on Charmaine's phone as we did not want to waste a day of filming. The quality was not as good as using a camera but we decided to continue our filming as these are only trial shots for the trailer and it is important to progress. Another issue that we had was with the cast and one of our actresses can no longer play the part of the 'Accepting Friend' so Kate has stepped into her role to allow us to keep filming. The weather was another issues during filming as it was windy and made it difficult to hear what each other was saying. Our final issue was that a dog kept appearing in our shots as the location in which are filming is a well-known dog walking spot so next time we will move to another area of the field where we won't be interrupted. Below our the shots that we have taken so far:

07/10/2011 - Reaction Shots from relevant film trailers

Reaction Shots
A reaction shot is the person's response to an event or something said by someone. Often used in motion pictures to convey the emotions of a character.

Here, are three screen shots from the film 'Taken'. We can see from the reactions shown on these characters' faces that one is in pain, one is in shock and the other is frightened. They seem very natural and the camera often focuses on them at a mid-close up shot of their faces. In the first shot we can see the physical pain on this man's face as it looks as if he is shouting. The woman in the second shot seems surprised and stares with disbelief. The final shot shows a girl on the phone distressed as she is recieving this phone call.

During our second complete trial shots for our film, we attempted to create a shot where our main character, Lily, is being grabbed by the abductor. Although it is not great, I think that it is a reaction shot as she knew that she was going to be grabbed but did not know when. Her reaction is shocked and she moves backwards and screams.

07/10/2011 - Character Research...Continued

Lily - Main Character. Vulnerable. Innocent. Abducted and central to the film.

The film trailer will focus predominantly on Lily's two friends who discover that she is missing and take it into their own hands to search for her as they become involved in her abductor's games.

The two girls involved appear to be quite similar to Lily but as the stress of her disappearance, a strain is put on their friendship and the audience sees the conflicting personalities. One of the girls from the very start takes the situation seriously and cannot rest until she has found Lily and brought the abductor to justice. The other girl initially seems unconerned that Lily is missing and does not believe it to be fatal. She refuses to believe that there is a game being played and later in the trailer she does not believe that they will ever find Lily. This causes distress as the girls do not explain the seriousness of this case until higher intervention is needed. Without the support of the other girl, girl 1 is decides to seek the abductor and find Lily mostly by herself. The other girl is worried that that girl 1 is obsessed and does not believe that they can find Lily without greater help.

So far, we have our actress who will play Lily (noted in previous blog entries). We have found another teenage girl to play girl 1 who will be obsessed and determined to find Lily and bring the abductor to justice. Girl 2 is still in progress as we need to find an actress who will be able to take this role seriously and committ to filming (even though she may not feature in the film trailer as much).