Character

My main character - Beth - will be played by my friend Siobhan. Siobhan is a good actress and was the protagonist in the preliminary task. This works well as I need someone that can get into character and express emotions well for this genre as social realism films are very much about the emotion behind the protagonist.

My character doesn't care how she looks or what clothes she wears. She's carefree of what people think as she doesn't think she belongs anywhere. She doesn't have friends so she is lonely and usually sad.

filming

FILMING 1


WHAT WENT WELL

I started filming today. I managed to film most of the scenes as the weather was surprisingly good and I had a lot of time. I was quite lucky as the weather was very good considering it's winter, so I managed to get the lighting how I wanted it - to seem more realistic and natural, (so when the sun was shining brightly and reflecting onto the camera, it looked good).

WHAT DIDN'T GO SO WELL...


I had a few problems with the filming inside my friends house as there wasn't a lot of room to get the shots I wanted. To solve this problem I changed how I wanted my shots, and the shot-type. And I will have to change the transitions from what I had originally planned when I'm editing.


FILMING 2


WHAT WENT WELL...
The costume that Siobhan was dressed in looked really good and was exactly the look I was hoping to get. We managed to get everything I needed for this section filmed in very good tie, however it was very dark so this may make it hard to see what's going on in the film. But this is okay, as filming these scenes didn't take long I have time to re-take it this weekend if this is the case.


WHAT DIDN'T GO SO WELL...
The original location I had planned for this scene (see previous posts) was too dark to get a decent picture. So we had to hike around Newmarket, with Siobhan dressed the part in ripped tights and a fairly long black coat wearing leopard print heels... so we did get a few funny looks. However we did manage to find a decent alley with street lights to film in instead.


PROBLEMS...


I have looked through my footage today, and there are some things I need to re-film due to poor lighting. This was the scene with Siobhan running in the dark, unfortunately she is going to have to  freeze again so I can re-take this section!

final animatic actually complete!

Production Cards

In today's lesson I started to do my 'PENGUIN PRODUCTIONS' animation. At home I had made a Plasticine penguin, and I used stop-motion to make it look like the penguin is dancing! This took up the whole lesson, as I had issues with the camera moving so the pictures were from slightly different views etc, however it was very productive as I think it looks really good and I have 4 seconds of my film sorted!


9/12/11


Today I have been putting my text from LiveType onto final cut to put on top of the penguin dancing. I managed to do this well with ease, and also has time to play about with effects. I haven't decided on a final effect yet, however I have got on idea of the the Vignette effect as I think this looks good with my idea.




Here is a shot of the production card.

Improving my Animatic

From the feedback I got I decided it would benefit my animatic if I followed the advice I was given.

Improvements I have made:

- Putting a close up of the main character's (Beth's) face into the opening... this is so the audience can understand more and sympathise with her more as they will be able to see her facical expressions. The audience will be able to relate to the protagonist.

- Including shots of the her house and the town she is in. This will benefit the opening sequence as it will allow the audience to see the place where Beth lives and the surrounding houses/flats.

- I have also completed my production cards music! I decided on what sounds I wanted, and I think it suits the names really well.

Props & Costumes

COSTUMES

I won't need to buy any clothes/accessories for my film as between me and my friends we can all supply the exact things I want my characters to wear.

My friend has a bag very similar to the one below, this is exactly the thing I want as it looks fairly scruffy and indie.

Smoking

My character, Beth, smokes. And obviously I am too young to buy cigarettes, but luckily my friend Will, who made the music for my opening and plays Beth's uncle is 18 and was able to supply us with a cigarette and lighter for Beth to have whilst being filmed.

Location

This is the location I will be using in my first few shots (in the flash forward shots). The telephone box in the left of this shot is the one which my actress will be running towards and make a phone call on. I choose this location as the flats in the shots will look quite dirty. And also, because of the horsetrack right next to the footpath, the footpath is quite dirty, so it fits in well with the run-down low-class look.

Animatic feedback

I've established from my peer assessment that the pace I have set out for my film is relevant and conventional to that of a social drama film. I am really pleased with this as I was unsure if it started to move too fast towards the end of the two minutes.

Also, I have introduced the storyline well, as I've made it clear why she's in the situation she is in. Although the flash forward at the beginning is quite confusing, so I will need to try and make this more clear that the shots before the film title are the results of the rest of the film. It is in the future, and the rest of the film is building up to that moment.


IMPROVEMENTS:

However, things I will need to improve in Tuesdays lesson will be putting in a close up of the actresses face. This will make the audience more able to sympathise with her at the start, and get feel more emotional about her situation. I will also try to add in more establishing shots - shots of her surroundings and location. It isn't very clear at the moment that she is living in a run-down house, however this house in a fairly middle class village - due to her uncle inheriting her mothers house when she passed away. Once I've got these shots in hopefully the audience will be able to relate more to her isolation and how she doesn't fit in.

I also need to make the music fade in and out. At the moment it just starts and stops, which is confusing for the audience, and as my peer has said, it will be more beneficial to the audience and suit the social drama genre more if I fade the music out.

animatic for opening sequence

Here is my current animatic for my opening sequence. There are some improvements I am planning to make, however I am please with how it has turned out so far.

Production Schedule

HERE IS MY PRODUCTION SCHEDULE...