20/03/2012 - Final Cut of the Film Trailer

Here is our finished trailer!

15/03/2012 - Eighth Set of Shots (For the final cut of our film)

Today we decided was a great day to refilm the scene where Chelsea and Shannon are seen piecing together the disappearance of their friend, Lily, after they have found her phone on the ground. As Charmaine was unable to help us with filming as she had lessons; Kate and I asked a few of our friends if they would help hold the equipment and keep it steady, once we had positioned it for them. Luckily they agreed and filming took no longer than about 45 mins as we had additional help with the equipment and were able to keep reshooting our shots until we were happy with them. As you can see our friends helped listen to the sound as we recorded it on the school's video camera and filmed the shots on Kate's Canon camera.

12/03/2012 - Seventh Set of Shots

28/02/2012 - Sixth Set of Shots

Here are a few images of Shannon and Chelsea during the shooting of the outside scenes. As you can see Shannon is dressed in a warm cardigan to represent her comforting personality and to give the impression that she is a concerned character. In contrast, Chelsea is shown to be dressed in jeans and a dark jumper and coat. This implies that she is a colder character and perhaps less comforting and caring about her friend, Lily.

Below are a few clips from the sixth time of filming and key events which we could potentially include in the trailer.

Outside Clips

Cupboard Scene

Night time (First Scene)

Stair Scene

24/02/2012 - Rough Cut

This is our first rough cut for our film trailer that we are producing. We evaluated the progress that we have made and have discussed a few of the issues that we had. As a group we are unhappy with this as we feel that it is more like a short film rather than a trailer for a full length film. The only section of the work that we have created so far that we think is most likely a trailer is the final scene where Lily is being held hostage by her abductor in a closet and is awaiting his arrival. We think that the trailer is too longer and therefore we need to cut the clips that we use and use more significant snapshots rather than irrelevant scenes e.g walking. The acting in our trailer is not serious enough and therefore tension is hardly built. A major issue that we had with editing was that the music did not fit the trailer and the sound effects that we had recorded were not of good quality. 

Our Media teacher and friend then watched the rough cut and gave us critiques as well as improvements that we could use to make our trailer better quality. They said that we should make it shorter and use more important moments. We should also include more jumpy parts as this will increase the tension for the audience. Reaction shots will be needed as well to reinforce the thriller genre and we can do this by zooming in and out on a character as they realise what is happening or change the position of the camera to show power. We will aim to use different shots to frame the picture of use a 1/2 shot to film a conversation. In the final scene, which we are most pleased with, we will ensure that our actress is scene to be struggling more to make it appear more realistic. 


We will be re-filming the entire film trailer on Monday the 27th February. Here is our timetable for filming that day: 

17/02/2012 - Fifth Set of Clips

Here are the fifth set of shots that we filmed on Dartford Heath instead of our usual location in Hartley as it is nearer and easy to access whenever we need to film. It is an open area and looks very similar to the field in which we have filming so there is continuity in the location. We filmed a scene in one of the two girls' bedrooms where they are trying to find Lily and Shannon is desperately work hard trying to work out the mystery. Chelsea on the other hand is convinced that Shannon is overreacting and tries to reassure her that Lily is probably at home hungover. We then filmed on the heath, the two girls walking the day after the party and finding Lily's phone. When finding the phone they receive a call and a text message from who they believe to be the abductor. We filmed the two girls sitting on a bench behind some trees to create the effect that they are being watched. The weather was sunny and not too windy for filming so it made it easy to capture what was happening, although we did not have the sound equipment so the quality of sound is not great.

17/02/2012 - Shooting Shannon & Chelsea Parts

Today we aimed to film the remaining parts of our trailer that we have barely focused upon; the characters and roles of Lily's friends. We were successful in doing so as filmed the scene in one of the girls bedroom where Shannon is frantically working away trying to find out what has happened to Lily juxtaposed to Chelsea who is lazing around on the bed painting her nails and puzzled as to why Shannon is so worried. 

We also needed to film outside where the two girls are on their journey home and stumble across Lily's phone and immediately find themselves involved in her abductor's 'game'. We checked the forecast for the day as we knew that we would be filming outside for a significant amount of time and did not want it to rain or be too sunny. As you can see the weather is cloudy which is ideal for our trailer as it should allow us to have suitable light to film and the cloudiness will foreshadow the misery that our characters are about to experience. 


For the scene in Shannon's bedroom, we wrote a rough script so that our characters would know what to say to each other and know how to interact. However, it is only rough and we are sure to change some of it but we will maintain and short script as this is only a short scene. During today's filming we were also unable to record sound properly as we did not have the appropriate  sound equipment so we could only use what was available on the video camera itself. 

09/02/2012 - Preparation

Make - Up

Here are an assortment of photographs of me and Kate preparing Georgi for her role in the film trailer. We applied mainly dark eye-shadow to her eyes to give the effect that she has been crying and is somewhat a mess from the ordeal. We also used make up on her face to smudge in to look like dirt as she is being kept in the cupboard of her abductor. 

We took some photographs of Georgi before filming to help her get into character and to show our progress while making the trailer. Here, she can be seen to look distressed and you will notice that we have only made her face look like it is covered in dirt because it is dark in the cupboard and it will be her face that the audience will focus on. 


Setting up the closet

Here is Kate lighting the scene and myself filming Lily in the cupboard scene. As you can see her wrists are tied and she is preparing for her role in the trailer. To light this scene we used a strong torch and used the main light source in the room as well.

This is the cupboard that we will be using to film Lily in as she has been taken hostage by her abductor. We filled it with male clothing as the abductor is clearly male and this is later confirmed when he is seen walking up the stairs.

         Setting up the staircase scene

We first tested Kate walking up the stairs to see how it would look and we were pleased with the outcome. By using the light from downstairs an orange-yellow colour reflects onto the wall and the person walking up the stairs becomes merely a shadow and a ghostly look is created.

We dressed our abductor in a big black coat and heavy boots so that he would walk up the stairs slowly and assert his power through thudding up the stair case. In the shots that we took, we were really pleased with the outcome and I think this is my favourite scene as it really builds tension for the audience as we know that Lily is helpless in the cupboard.

09/02/2012 - Fourth Set of Shots - The End Scene

In the last remaining 30 seconds or so of our film trailer we will reveal what the audience are made to believe is the abductor walking up a stair case. We practised this scene by filming at a low angle in a doorway as one of us walked up the stair case slowly and almost in a ghostly like way. We made sure that the lights were off apart from one downstairs to obviously give us a source of light and to make the figure appearing up the stairs  appear as a shadow. We then used Kate's dad, who dressed in a dark coat and boots to walk up the stairs slowly and I think this was effective as he seems inhuman and you cannot identify who he is exactly. 

Here are just a few of the clips from filming the moment that the audience sees Lily being kept in a cupboard by her abductor. The clips shown mainly demonstrate how we filmed this scene and making our actress knew what to do for this part. She is dressed in her red dress which connotes danger and almost illustrates just how vulnerable she is. In the cupboard she is seen to be gagged and struggling to break free from her ties. The cupboard is arranged with male clothing and shoes at the bottom near where our actress is located. 

14/12/2011 - Sound

As we have had some issues with filming due to weather and members of the group and our actresses having exams we have been unable to film consistently in the past few weeks. In the meantime, we have focused on researching the sound and music that we will use in our film trailer. We used the microphone to record the sounds that we created by connecting it into the camera to save these noises. We used the dead cat to enhance the sound picked up by the microphone and an extendable holder so we can change the distance of the microphone from what it was picking up.

Firstly, we recreated the sound of footsteps for our main character, Lily, as she is initially walking back at a regular pace and then speeds up to a rapid movement as she is running away from her attacker. In the video, you will notice that we recorded one of the members of our group walking along a bed of leaves and grass which really brings out the crunchiness of the leaves and produces natural footstep noises. However, when recording the sound of the microphone being tapped can be heard therefore we cannot use this sound clip.
                                               
            

 Video Clip 1: Attempt at recording footsteps on grass and leaves.  As mentioned previously, we found this clip to be unsuccessful because of the sound of the microphone knocking which would distract the audience listening to the trailer.

Video Clip 2: Second attempt to recreate footsteps, closer up and pace of walking picks up. We found that this re-recording of the sound that we were trying to create was more successful but did not create enough of a realistic impact that we wanted.

Video Clip 3: Picking up leaving and crumpling them.

Our final attempt was the most successful as we were able to control the speed of the crumpling sound being made. It was easier and more efficient to use this method.

The YouTube video that I have included shows a similar sound to the noise of footsteps on leaves that we created by crumpling them. When researching how to make realistic sound effects we found this video and decided that this would be the appropriate method to produce natural sounding footsteps.

12/12/2011 - Third Shots - Editing trial clips

Here is the intial attempt at editing our existing clips for our film trailer. We are aware that there is no sound for the film as of yet because we want to focus on perfecting the filming and especially the use of light in the opening scene. We used large torches to shine in directions surrounding our actress however, at some points it is evident of our unnatural source of light so we will reshoot this scene.

04/11/2011 - Trial Clips from 2nd Shooting

Here are just a few short clips from the second trial shooting that we filmed for our trailer. The issues that we had during the filming of these shots were that it was too light and there were unnecessary shadows that we could not hide when we edited the clips to create a night time effect.

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:

30/09/2011 - Filming Equipment

 

During the trial filming of our trailer, we used various pieces of equipment to catch the movement of our actress. As demonstrated in the image to the left, we used a video camera to capture our film and a tripod to hold the camera still.

20/09/2011 - Trial Shots

The initial filming of our film trailer has begun! On Thursday 15th September, we collected the equipment and travelled to the location researched in the previous post. The setting that we have chosen is an open field which backs onto a row of houses. This is perfect for our filming as we have plenty of room for equipment and movement. During our filming, we were not disturbed and were able to film in different areas without being interrupted.

Here is a gif of compiled photographs of the location from different angles.

There was three of us filming various shots and using the equipment. We took it in turns to film particular shots as a means to practise using the equipment and familarising ourselves with the different shots. During the filming, we realised that the lighting was an issue in such an open space and although we were filming at around 5pm and it was beginning to get dark, it was still too light to film. Here is a short clip of our actress running past the camera; as you can see it was far too bright to film.

Although, it is not ideal that we could not film this shot clearly it has allowed us to reconsider our lighting issues e.g perhaps filming later in the day when it is actually dark. We intend to keep her clothes bright blue and white colours as it will symbolise her innocence and vulnerability as well as making her stand out.