Filming and Editing the Main Exercise

Filming the Main Exercise was far harder than the Preliminary Exercise as there were more locations to visit, everything had to be more precise, there was less room for mistakes and I felt slightly ill on the day.

Overall though, everything went smoothly and the actors and actresses got on very well with each other which made the filming process much easier as there was no discomfort which cou

ld have been appeared obvious when it came to editing and uploading it.

Because we had already had experience in filming the Preliminary Exercise also, this gave us better understanding of what was needed and expected as well as how to do certain things. It gave us a chance to learn from our mistakes as well as previously when we filmed the first film we made errors in forgetting to use the rule of thirds appropriately which affected the 180 degree rule. We also missed out a lot of the shots so that meant we only had half a film to use although we were lucky that it still fitted together well enough for it not to be a major issue. From all of this, we made sure we followed the storyboards properly and double checked it at the end to make sure we had included every shot. As well as this we made a point to make sure the 180 degree rule and the rule of thirds were in effect too.The main problem we were faced with was the amount of people walking around as well as lots of cars on the road and general interferences with the shots.

This meant we had to retake lots of the shots constantly to ensure that there was nothing disrupting the frame and this took up a lot of our time. It also became fairly frustrating at times as there were occasions where it was incredibly hard

to do a shot without a pedestrian walking past the camera especially as we wanted to ta

ke each shot at least a couple of times to make sure we could get the best shot possible.

One worry that we all had also was the weather as it wasn’t a particularly nice day when we filmed it and

we were unsu

re if there was going to be any thick fog or heavy rainfall that might affect the camera work of disrupt the continuity of the film. Luckily it stayed constant and remained only moderately cloudy which provided appropriate pathetic fallacy for us as it

helped portray the emotions of the main character. Despite the

cloud cover, the lighting was also quite good and provided us with efficient brightness within the fra

me so it wasn’t too dark or too light.When it came to the editing there was what we believed to be quite a big problem as the opening sequence we had chosen to film depended solely on music and sound effects with no dialogue and once we had filmed we were then told we weren’

t allowed to use copyright free music. This would have been a major problem as not only would it mean re filming as we had given

directions over the top of the shots, it would also mean re scripting it with dialogue which would have been really hard as the main characters don’t meet to speak to each other so we would also have had to develop something new. Either that or we would have to use a different song from a copyright free website but it would have meant paying £30 for it. Luckily we fo

und out that we can use the royalty free music although it means paying £5 which is nothing compared to the hassle we would have had to deal with if we couldn’t use it full stop.
Overall the filming went well and I am proud of the groups input and the outcome.

Pre-Production Paperwork

Initial Ideas
SWOT Analysis
Research into Social Realism (Typical Codes and Conventions)
Way of Life Analysis (Film Analysis)
Love + Hate Analysis (Film Analysis)
StoryBoards
Dual Column Script
Risk Assessment
Call Sheet

The First Reflective Blog Entry on the Main Exercise

From filming the Preliminary Exercise, I have learnt quite a lot in the way of filming, mostly that there is far more to it than you initially expect.

Doing the Main Exercise first seemed daunting compared to the first film which was a way of getting to grips with the topic and filming as when you first do it mistakes are very likely to happen but you they are there to

help you build on. When we were first told that we were creating the opening sequence of a British film I felt very nervous as that has never

been the part of a film that I have concentrated on and it appeared much harder than the first film so I had no idea what to do. After Lee had taken us through it some more it became clearer and, although it still felt slightly daunting, I felt more comfortable in understanding it.

The planning of this exercise is far more thorough and I feel like I have to be far more precise with it so that myself and my group know everything about what we are doing when it comes to filming as we can't afford for something to go wrong. Because of this we have worked together on all of the planning although we have been allocated certain roles within it and this means that this person is in charge of that area of planning such as the paperwork and making sure it’s safe, doing a final draft version and so on. Overall though, we have all made valid contributions and the input of planning has been equal. The advantage of my group is that Charley does Film Studies and therefore understands what we are doing quite well, and Alex has had experience in the topic having done Media Studies previously before this year. On the other hand though, our weaknesses based on the Preliminary Exercise are that we need to be far more accurate with our framing and following the 180 degree rule as last time there were some problems in complete accuracy and we ended up breaking the 180 degree rule by placing both actors heads in the same part of the frame during a conversation.

As well as this we need to be far more aware of what is going on during the filming as we ended up not filming half of what had been planned on the storyboards, possibly because we weren't filming in order.

In the Main Exercise, we will be filming in different locations and we need to be fully on top of everything which will be easy seeing as we have learnt from our previous mistakes. Next time I think I will put more input into the research as this was a downfall last time. I was unsure of what to do properly and didn't know to what extent the research had to match the film we were creating so I found it difficult to find anything related. As well as this I have chosen roles more suited to me because, although in the planning

of the Preliminary Exercise, I chose to do the script work which went well as I enjoy writing, I also was put in charge of the camera and this was a downfall as I had no idea what I was doing.

This time I will be in charge of the editing and having had experience with windows media player previously I have a better understanding of what to do. I believe overall that the Main Exercise will go well. We have still got to find actors as we only have one so far but as all our roles are sorted out, as well as the storyboards and locations, we know what we are doing well so everything should go as planned. We have planned to start filming next week and carry on for as long as it takes which, due to experience from the Preliminary Exercise, shouldn't be too long seeing as we have better understanding now.