Finished Product

Editing

After we had finished filming all of our footage on our various locations we then uploaded it onto the computer and used a programme called Adobe Premiere Pro.
We did have some idea about how to use this programme as we had each read the user guide to it and had used it for our preliminary task. However, as we got more into the editing we learnt more about what worked and what didn’t through trial and error.
We all had a go at editing our film, and all incorporated our different ideas that we had. Overall, I think that the editing makes the film look much more interesting with all the different transitions and effects.

Written by Sheryl.

Music

As soon as we got into filming our footage we came across a song that would fit perfectly to the action scene, however we were then informed that we were unable to use that as we had to find music from an uncopyrighted source. This made us later in finishing our film, as all the sites with uncopyrighted music on you had to pay for. However, then our teacher said that her husband used to be in a band and we were welcome to use some of there music. So we then looked through the albums of his and found music for the action, date and travelling scenes. In the end the music worked well with our film and makes it more interesting to watch.

Written by Sheryl.

The Shoot - Props, Costumes, Locations, Filming, etc.

On our shoot at our final location everything went well. Apart from the daylight fading as we went further into our filming, but we managed to disguise this fact and the filming turned out to be fine. Our props came in to use and made the film more realistic and added more impact to certain parts of the action scene. We had no trouble with the costumes and I think we chose the right ones for each of our characters, as they help to portray what sort of person they are. Whilst filming certain parts of our sequence we were unable to use a tripod, such as the low level shots, so we had to be very careful and rest the camera on something in order to get a steady shot.

Written by Sheryl.

Time Management Log

Shooting Schedule

7-10th November 2008 – New York Footage – Filmed by Emma Cottee – No cast.

21st November 2008 – London Footage – Filmed by Emma Cottee, Luke Nicholls, Sheryl Teather and Amy Gallacher – No cast.

10th December 2008 –
1.45pm-2.45pm – Date Scene – Sixth Form Sensory Garden – Filmed by Emma Cottee, Luke Nicholls, Sheryl Teather and Amy Gallacher – Cast: Charlotte Nicholls and Ryan Taylor.
3.30pm-4.00pm – Running Scenes – Outside On Location – Filmed by Luke Nicholls, Sheryl Teather and Amy Gallacher – Cast: Ryan Taylor.
4.00pm-4.30pm – Car Chase Scenes and Shooting – Outside On Location – Filmed by Emma Cottee, Luke Nicholls, Sheryl Teather and Amy Gallacher – Cast: Ryan Taylor and Pelham Wickes.
4.30pm-5.00pm – Hotel Scene – Bedroom On Location – Filmed By Emma Cottee, Luke Nicholls, Sheryl Teather and Amy Gallacher – Cast: Charlotte Nicholls.

11th December 2008 – Phone Call Footage – Media Classroom – Filmed by Luke Nicholls – Cast: Ryan Taylor.

Written by Emma.

Casting

Sheryl - "We orginally cast three main characters - Carl for the man, Samantha for the woman and Pelham for the driver - for our production and began to arrange props, costumes, hair and make-up for those people. However due to medical reasons one of the cast members had to drop out of the shoot, which resulted in having to find new members at last minute. We changed Carl to Ryan and Samantha to Charlotte and I think it turned out well with the new people."

Emma - "We had planned our ideal cast members from the startof the project, however, a few days before filming it became clear that our male lead would not be well enough to take part. This caused issues as we were unsure whether to wait and see whether he would be well enough with a bit of luck, or whether we would have to find a replacement. A day or two previous to our main filming involving the characters, Luke and I decided that we would need to find someone fast, and so after lengthy evening phonecalls, and online conversations with Amy, we decided to change our male lead to a friend of Luke's sister: Ryan. With this change in actor, we realised that the female lead we had had in mind would now be unsuitable as she would be too tall, and looked older than the male. For this reason, we then changed our female lead to Luke's sister Charlotte. We decided that it would still be okay to stick with our driver actor as he would only appear briefly, and would not look out of place next to the others."

Footage from London and New York

Before we began filming the main block of footage for our production, we went out to two of the world’s major cities to capture the culture and landmarks there. London and New York are two of the major locations for highly financed and successful films, and we believe that using this location for our own narrative would open new prospects for us, and allow us to do much more with our film than before.

Emma travelled to New York as part of a family vacation, so we took the opportunity to give her a camera, and allow her to film for us.

“Whilst I was enjoying my family holiday, I made sure that I filmed everything that I could to capture all of the important landmarks, and also anything that symbolised everyday life for New Yorkers and tourists. I wanted to make sure that I had more than enough footage for the rest of the group to look at when I returned, and that I didn’t miss any good opportunities, and so therefore carried the camera everywhere with me for the whole weekend. I made sure I captured the most important like the Statue of Liberty, Times Square and other well known buildings, and I also paid specific attention to hotel-like buildings and yellow taxi’s, as I knew these would play a key role in our film. I ended up with more than enough footage, but this gave us plenty to choose from and a lot left over for any further projects.”

Once she had arrived back, we reviewed the excellent footage she provided for us, and arranged to visit London as a group, to get similar shots and footage to match – but of the different cultures and landmarks. We know that this will better the overall production, and increase the audience’s enjoyment…

Here is a schedule of landmarks we needed to shoot, and the route to get there, and the tube stations to arrive at:

Liverpool Street -
Circle/District Line to Tower Hill
@ Tower Hill film Tower of London, Tower Bridge & Gherkin


Tower Hill -
Circle/District Line to Westminster
@ Westminster film London Eye, Big Ben & Houses of Parliament


Westminster -
Circle/District Line to Embankment
Change to Northern Line to Leicester Square
@ Leicester Square film electronic billboards


Leicester Square -
Piccadilly Line to Convent Garden
@ Covent Garden film Covent Garden


Covent Garden -
Piccadilly Line to Holborn
Change to Central Line to Oxford Circus
@ Oxford Circus film Oxford Street


Oxford Circus -
Victoria Line to Green Park
Change to Piccadilly Line to Knightsbridge
@ Knightsbridge film Harrods


Knightsbridge -
Piccadilly Line to South Kensington
Change to Circle Line to Notting Hill Gate
Change to Central Line to Marble Arch
@ Marble Arch film Marble Arch & Speaker's Corner (Hyde Park Corner)


Marble Arch -
Central Line to St. Pauls
@ St. Pauls film St. Pauls Cathedral


St. Pauls -
Central Line to Liverpool Street

Written by Luke. Quotation from Emma. Schedule by Sheryl.

Photographic Storyboard

Above is our photographic storyboard. After drafting our first storyboard by hand, we decided to recreate our sketches using a digital camera. We photographed all of our still images and put them into our storyboard. The blank areas in our storyboard are the images from London and New York that we did not have at this point, however, we knew what footage we would need as it was already planned on our sketched draft. We also included what the action would be around that still image, the shot type, the length of the shot, any sound/lighting effects, graphic codes and any music and dialogue in that scene.

Mood Board

When planning our film, Emma and I worked together to create a mood board that would show our groups ideas of what was to be included in our production. The mood board is split up into 3 sections:
- Costume
- Props
- Location

After planning the basic costumes that would feature in our film, we searched through magazines to find images of the styles we were looking for. We also found images of the props we planned to use and also pictures of the locations that we had planned to feature in the production.

Below are the still images taken of our completed mood board.

Possible Costumes

We discussed possible wardrobe ideas, and Sheryl created the images above. When it came to our female protagonist, we said that we wanted to show the woman's naive and youthful side, and so decided that a softer primary coloured dress for the date scene would be more suitable than an sophisticated or sexy costume. Also, taking our possible actress choices into account, we researched actresses that we planned for them to be like. We had a common interest in Kate Hudson's look, and decided to, if possible, use a similar hairstyle to hers. For her other outfit of the sequence, we chose to use something simple and casual.

Our two male leads were going to be similar in age, job and looks, and therefore we decided to use their costumes to signify the differences in their character. Our speaking lead would be wearing a suit from the date scene and would continue to wear this throughout. We were originally undecided as to whether he would appear again at a later stage, and so considered another outfit of blue jeans and a jumper that would be simple but classic. Our driver character would only appear once, and would have to be portrayed as a totally different character to our speaking lead. We used darker coloured clothes to give an edgier feel to his character and took into account the props we wanted such as black leather gloves.

These are just temporary ideas that we will evolve to fit to our characters as our project progresses.

Images by Sheryl. Written by Emma. Ideas by all.

Possible Props

We knew the types of props that we wanted for our opening sequence, and we managed to borrow a gun and pair of black leather gloves, that matched our vision, from our school. One problem we did have when using a mock gun as a prop was that we had to make sure people were aware that it was infact fake, and that there was no danger. Because of this, we made sure that on the school premises it was kept in its case so that no one could see it. When it came to filming, we were on private property with a lot of land, and therefore it was not so much of an issue, however, we still informed the land owners of the gun. We also realised that to fit in with our script, we would need a plane ticket of some sort. We figured that the easiest wasy to do this would be to just print one from the internet. We realised that although the text and information on the ticket cannot be applied to our storyline, this would not matter as there are no close-ups of the ticket, and the text cannot be seen clearly at any point.

Possible Locations

The settings we needed for the filming of our footage included: a deserted road, with trees and fields around it - for the running, car, and gun scenes; a hotel-style room - for the girl / phone scene; and an isolated but warm, romantic area - for the date scene. We looked around the local area, and then during one of our production meetings, we brainstormed ideas with each other, considering using local parks with trees and roads, but still not knowing what to do for a hotel room. We thought about having to get a room at a hotel nearby for the scene, however, we wanted to try to avoid this, keeping a low budget for the production; it would be impractical to pay the full fee for a hotel room to shoot for a small amount of time.
After some thought, I suggested that we could use an associates property and facilities, which would allow us to capture all of the footage we needed in one session, if they agreed to allow us to film there. I contacted them, but we kept searching for an appropriate location until the associates kindly agreed to allow us to use their property. The location included the isolated road, surrounded by trees and fields, noisy gravel, bridges and lakes we could make use of, and a clock tower, which would allow us to get an aerial shot.
The location proved an excellent success. Due to a tight shooting schedule, and restrictions set on cast members, we had to quickly find a different location for the date scene, after which we headed over to the main location, and got the rest of our footage before the evening got too dark. The associates also agreed to let us film in the main building for the hotel scene, which allowed us to complete the majority of the footage. Everyone was very pleased with the result.