Lead Guy Footage

Today we filmed the 'lead guy' in school. We captured footage of George Quinnell-Harcombe playing a song on a piano and singing. The song is by my band, so there are no copywriter issues. We will use this scene at the end of our video as the non-diegetic music ends. The diegetic sound starts as the door to the room opens. We took multiple takes of George, each take from a different angle, and one mobile camera take. The scene ends with George turning the equipment of and leaving the room.

Transition 'Flash'

I found a good effect that we can use for some of our styalistic transitions that made the brightness of the video increase to the point that the sceen becomes momentarily white. This could also be useful for our camera flashes.

Trouble Editing The Scenes

We had problems today with editing because some of our scenes have been sped up to fast to accuratly edit. We had to slow down all of our work so far to make editing easier.

Normal Kids - Shooting

We have shot the footage for our 'normal kids scene'. We filmed people in our school's common room sitting on sofas set up in a circle, with space for the camera man to move through. We have also taken a photograph of a few members of the cast for this scene to use as still photograph in our project. We took the photo against a blue screen and later I will edit the image by inserting a new background.

Above: the image as it currently stands.

Nearly done filming the 'transition clips'

Rohan and I have now filmed over 25 minutes of footage of the school corridors. We used our idea (taping a camera to an office chair) to film track cam style sections of the camera moving down empty corridors. We are going to cut the best takes of each section together and then speed the footage up to use in our second section of our two minute film (the first section being the scenes shot in the lead characters homes.) We are pleased with the footage we have captured so far.

Storyboard: Part 2

•Image 1: 'Chavs' standing (maybe dancing) next to a pylon.

•Image 2: Shots of a rugby game taking place.

•Image 3: Shot of the 'rock band' recording a song together.

•Image 4: Shot of a music technician recording the 'rock band'. The band can be seen through the window.

•Image 5: Shot of a jazz group performing in the room next to the 'rock band'.

•Image 6: Shot of 'Lead Guy' practicing his singing with a friend accompanying him on a piano.

Storyboard: Part 1

•Image 1 + 2: 'Lead Guy' waking up on the morning and proceeding with classic 'school morning' activities such as brushing teeth, eating breakfast etc.

•Image 3 + 4: Front door of home slams as 'Lead Guy' leaves the house. As the door slams, the scene cuts to an establishing shot of people walking into the school building.

•Image 5: Shot of 'Emos' standing in the school garden area.

•Image 6: Shot of 'Lead Girl' practicing her singing with her teacher.

•Image 7: 'Nerds' in library - two playing chess, two playing with swords.

•Image 8: People sitting on sofas in the common room conversing as a group.

musical research before filming

Research and planning for our musical

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Re-Capturing some sections of our 'transition clips'

We noticed after uploading and reviewing our shots for cut scenes when we noticed that in some takes we have managed to capture our shadows, and will therefore have to reshoot these parts earlier in the morning when the sun is facing the other way.

Thinking About Costume

A list of costume possibilities for the different characters:

Sports players - Rugby kit

Emos - Black skin tight jeans, black hoodies, dark eyeshadow, slight pale faces

Chavs - Big hoodies with hoods up, big tracksuit bottoms, big trainers

Jazz band/symphony orchestra - smart shirts, tucked in

Band - Skinny jeans/ripped jeans, band t-shirts, trainers/basketball shoes and accessories

Nerds - Black trousers, shirts, big glasses

Cast Thoughts

We have thought about the cast that we will need for our film.

This is a list of parts that we have so far:

Lead Guy

Lead Girl

"Emos"

"Chavs"

"Nerds"

Band

Jazz Band/Symphony Orchestra

Normal Students

Sporty Students

Friends of Lead Girl

Friend of Lead Boy

Music Technician

Drama Teacher

Music Teacher

Families of lead roles

In some instances we may use actors for more than one part e.g. we could re-use any of the "chavs" because in the shots they will have hoods up and their faces will be to covered up to see.

A beginning for our film

We think that it would be cool to start our film with the two lead characters waking up in the morning and getting ready for the first day at school. We will film the actors sitting up suddenly in bed with messy hair etc. then film as they proceed to other morning tasks like brushing their teeth. When they leave their houses the scene will cut to the school entrance scene.

Audience Profile

After looking at other popular musicals, we have decided that our film will be aimed at people from the ages of 8 to 15. It will probably follow the content style of a PG certificate film. The story will include topics of interst to people of such ages e.g. school life.

Problems with time restrictions.

We have estimated that our film is going to be well over two minutes, and so we needed to cut something out. We have decided to remove the opening scene because it is simply to long. Instead, the film will open at the school entrance with students entering.

I also thought it would be a good idea if in the opening scene we have a time-lapse where the scene cuts from just a few students entering the school, to a few more, and build up.

Because there will be no incet days between now and the deadline, we have changed our story slightly to be set in a school with a 6th form.

Problems with mise-en-scene in the filming

We are planing on basing our video in a 6th form collage, although we are filming in a secondary school. We have some shots of students entering the school with lots of people in, and these shots will be much easier to film if we take the shots as the school day begins. The problem is that most of the actors will be in school uniform, and this will seem unrealistic because it will be obvious that these people are not A level students.

To tackle this problem, we will try to take these shots on a school mufti day so that everyone will be in there own clothes.

Order Of Shots In The School

Rohan and I have decided on an order of shots for our scenes in the school. The order is as follows:

• Students entering the school by the gate
• Students entering the school in the canteen
• 'Emos' in the garden area
• Lead girl in the drama studio
• 'Nerds' in the Library
• Shot of students in the common room
• 'Chavs' by a pylon
• Rugby/football game on the field
• Band recording in a large music room, a shot of the band from the studio and a shot of the jazz band
• Lead guy in a practice room. (Dialogue)

Thought For Music

Today I went over to The Yehudi Menuhin School and listen to loads of peoples compositions written over the last few months. Each one seemed to have it's own unique sound. This has given me an idea that when I write the music for our project, maybe for each group on screen the music could vary according to the genre of music that is commonly associated with the group.

We are going to use a blue screen to take still shots of characters or groups with different backgrounds (e.g. a note pad with doodles on it). These stills could feature text; possibly cast, character and/or group name.

Getting Around The School In Our Project

We have decided that in our project we will capture different stereotypical social groups in different areas of the school. Between each area, we think it will be a good idea to film as we move on to the next area, and when we edit the shots we will speed the footage up.

To avoid the camera from jolting too much (although we aim to have some jolting movements), we think we will film the scenes with our own recreation of a dolly camera (camera taped to office chair).

Ratings

I have looked at the certificates of some musical films to help me understand what types of content I should aim to use. Generally, musicals seem to have very clean content that can be watched by anyone. For instance; Hairspray (2007) and Grease are both rated PG, and High School Musical is rated U.

PG: Parental Guidence
The BFFC defines a 'PG' as follows: "General viewing, but some scenes may be unsuitable for some children. Unaccompanied children of any age may watch. A 'PG' film should not disturb a child aged around eight or older. However, parents are advised to consider whether the content may upset younger or more sensitive children."

In a film rated PG there is a certain level of exceptance towards more adult features, including: more serious issues such as rasism or crime providing that these issues are not glorified in any way; a level of mild bad language may be used; nudity with no sexual context; the discrete inplication of sexual activity; moderate, undetailed violence.

Rohan and I think that we will try to keep our musical within the boundaries of the PG certificate specifications to help ensure that we create an accurate representation of a musical.

Film4 Films

Film4 Productions is a British film production company owned by Channel 4. Because a British television channel, and not a large media conglomeration own them, they tend to make lower budget films.

Film4 usually produce British films such as This Is England and Trainspotting, two films that are very different to my musical. However, following Film4’s global success with the film Slumdog Millionaire, they could be a good company to produce my film.

Paramount Pictures

Paramount Pictures is an American film production and distribution company. Viacom, the world’s third largest media conglomerate, owns Paramount Pictures. Paramount Pictures is the oldest American film company, founded in 1912. They will often produce and distribute a film, as well as playing just one of these roles.

Paramount Pictures help make films from all genres, and would therefore have experience when making a musical. Paramount Picture would be a good candidate to produce and distribute my film.

Working Title Films

Working Title Films is a British film production company, founded in 1983. Working Title Films are soon to release a television division. American filmmaking company Universal Studios owns Working Title Films, who in turn is owned by American multinational conglomerate General Electric. Because of Working Title Films’ relationship with these large companies, they often make small budget films, but have the ability to produce films of larger budgets, such as Johnny English, with a budget of $40 million.

Working Title Films are responsible for “stereotypical British Films” such as Four Weddings And A Funeral, Notting Hill and Bridget Jones’s Diary, as well as more traditional British Films such as Atonement, Pride And Prejudice, etc. However, they also make more general films. Because of the companies extensive experience in general film making, although not so much with musicals, I would say that Working Title Films could be a good company to produce my film.

We intend on using the school's 'PEC room' as a location for a shot involving athletic students working out.

We want to get a shot of the school jazz orchestra or symphony orchestra rehearsing their music.

We want to use this science room to get a shot of students doing chemistry practical work with bunsen burners and liquids in flasks.

We think that the library will be a good location to get a shot of stereotypical 'nerds' in the school.

This is the main entrance to the school. Rohan and I think that this will be a good area to get a general shot of students as they enter the school's main building.

We think that the canteen will be a good location to obtain general shots of pupils in the school.

We are going to use this area to get a shot of students 'flooding' into one of the buildings as they are bottlenecked through the door.

Rohan and I like this area because it looks nice and could be used for a number of different shots.

This is an area of the school that looks particularly run down and unpleasant, with a broken bollard and industrial sized bins to the right of the frame. This area could be used when we shoot a section representing more rebellious and willfully disobedient students.

The drive up to our school. We intend to capture a shot of students walking into the school in the morning.

More Ideas Regarding My Two Minute Opening

today we looked at the opening scenes of films of different genres (Kidulthood and Goodfellas for gangster, High School Musical, Hairspray and Grease for musicals and Scream, Saw II, Cloverfield and The Village for horror) and took notes on what we thought were distinctive techniques and characteristics used to help convey what genre the film is. I found this task useful because I will be able to apply the ideas that I have taken from watching the openings of the musicals to my two minute opening scene. I found that musical films are interesting because they do not seem to have to follow a particular theme or use any specific techniques. Also, only hairspray opened with music, where as Grease and High School Musical both begin with scenes introducing the leading characters. I think I will have to include song and dance in my opening scene because there seems to be no other obvious way to convey the genre of film that I am trying to recreate.

Generating Ideas For A Two Minute Opening

Last week Rohan and I presented to the class our ideas for our final two minute long introduction video. After thinking about doing a horror film or a gangster film, we decided we would do a musical style film based in the school, potentially writing a short soundtrack for it ourselves. We have thought about a corresponding story-line and potential cast, what we are going to shoot and how we are going to shoot it.

Our First Video Conversation

Editing

Today Rohan and I cut up and edited our footage. I think the match on action has been done quite well. We have taken as much unwanted noise out of the scene as we could without disturbing the speech too much, and we are becoming familiar with the editing software. After a bit of time spent cutting the clips up and moving things around, we managed to get the speech how we want it. We plan to upload the scene tomorrow.

Today I also did an analysis on the opening five minutes to the horror movie 'Scream'. I learned to make links between different aspects of analysis such as 'sound and editing', 'camera work and sound' and 'mise-en-scene and editing'. After the task, I now feel comfortable with analyzing in this way.

First bit of filming

Me and Rohan started filming for a bit of classwork last week. We have filmed a person walking down a corridor and entering a room where they sit down and exchange words with another person. The match on action when the first person enters the room is pretty difficult to get right but hopefully it will come together when we edit the shots later on.