Re-filming

Whilst editing our film today we found that a few of our shots didn't work out so we are going to re-film them.

The first thing we found was that in the scenes of the graveyard we had broken the 180 degree rule so the scene didnt have continuity and had to get rid of one of the scenes we wanted to include so we will have to get some more footage of the graveyard scenes to fill the gap.

The second problem we found was that we didnt have enough footage of the girl looking at the gravestone and the gravestone looking bake up at her and we are going to need more scenes like this if we want to create a connection between the girl and the grave, we will re-film this when we film the scenes with the boy at the graveyard.

Another part of our short film we need to re-film are the scenes as the girl is waking up in her bedroom, we need to do this because the lighting is not right and needs to be lighter and the mise en scene is not right in some shots either as it contains things in the shot that shouldn't be there, we shall therefore need to re-schedule a time for re-filming this soon at laura's house.

Also with the scenes at laura's house we have spotted that in the kitchen scenes there is a shadow that shouldn't be there as she is supposed to be home alone, another thing we need to change is the food in the fridge as there is too much food in there to show her mum is never there and things in the fridge that a mother or daughter shouldn't have in there if they live alone with no father figure, we will also re-film this when we film other things again at laura's house.

I noticed that the cereal box that we were using had three happy children on the front which i thought would ruin the illusion that our character is sad and lonely, however, we thought that this was just being to picky but after speaking to our teachers about it i feel we should use a differnt cereal box so it carries on the feeling of loneliness, from this mistake i have learnt that when we are filming next time to take more attention to details like this so we don't have to re-film again.

Filming has finally started

Yesterday we were really unsure about our film and were even considering changing our idea, however, we have decided to stick with it and try and get it done, also whilst having these thoughts we decided to do some practice shots around the school which we were not sure of how to film or if they would work but after doing them we now know how they will work in our film and are quite confident about filming them.

We have made some changes in our film, one of the changes is our main character, as we were let down many times by two different people we have just decided that it will be better if one of us was the main character and I have said that i will be her, the only problem with this is that i will not be able to film the scenes that i am acting in so i am going to film all the other scenes that i can and help laura set up the shots and give ideas to how they will be filmed. Also because I am now going to be the main character in our film we could use some of the practise shots of me in the school in our film if we need them.

Today we actually got some filming done, although we couldn't get our boy character available to film today we got most of the graveyard shots done and we got a few more shots than we may actually need but i think this is a good idea because then we will not need to go back to film any more and will have more shots to include when editing if we find we do actually need them.

Shots and ways of filming

Our film has got quite a strong story line now and we have decided what each scene is going to include, however, now we need to think about how each shot is going to be filmed and what shot types we are going to use, I have had a few ideas;

With the scenes including the school we should film the building as though it is towering above our character to give it a daunting look, because our character is not going to see the school as a good place because she has no friends.

I thought that because our main character is feeling lonely we should film with a slight angle to show that she is not happy, we will do this by having the camera looking down on her and making her seem insignificant. This angle on her could then change to looking straight on at her towards the end when she meets the boy, this will show things are looking up for her.

In the graveyard scene as she is walking towards the grave i felt that we could make this scene quite interesting by filming her at all different angles and when we come to editing it we could cut it so that she is walking then it jumps forward a bit then carries on walking and show it from a different angle, we could even pan around her as she is walking and show her walking past and then seeing her walk from the back and finally getting to the grave.

When our character is stood at the grave we could film as though the grave is a character, we could do a match-on-action shot so the camera looks at her from the grave and is looking at her then a shot from where she is stood and looking at the grave, I think this will be effective because it will show the connection between her and the grave.

On the bus scene we will have to film more footage of our character on the bus because then if we need to show a long time we can use the footage we already have rather than having to film more, also this footage may come in handy in case we need more and we dont have time to film or have more problems like we already have.

Additions to Storyboard

• Graveyard shot- More close-ups


• Slower getting out of bed after alarm sounds in shots 11 + 12


• More shots of pictures of dad around her room


• After bedroom scene we need shots of her walking to the bathroom rather than just appearing there


• Close ups of post it notes


• In bathroom cupboard show 3 toothbrushes or a razor to show elements of her dads existence


• More hints of dad being dead e.g. pictures missing from the wall as she walks to kitchen


• Use a cracked mirror to show she is sad


• Quick paced shots of her getting cereal, bowl and spoon for breakfast


• Close ups of post its on fridge


• shot of girl sighing in shot 22 when she sees the milk is empty


• girl leaves bowl empty as she walks out the house to school


• before shot 28 show her waiting for the bus and not it just appearing, shots from behind and front and showing a dull day


• close ups of hands opening purse to get money and see a picture of her and dad then she shuts the purse.


• shot of her getting off the bus and walking into school


• hear the school bell and see her walking into her class


• after her class finishes bell rings again and show fast paced shots of her clearing away


• After boy walks past in shot 34 show them looking at eachother from far away as well as close ups


• in classroom close up of what she is reading and hear her reading


• on whiteboard behing teacher have written what she is feeling


• close up shots of her clearing things before knocking pen on the floor in shot 39


• after pen shot and them accidental touching close up of his eyes and then hers


• Instead of her just appearing at her house show a shot of the bus driving past her house and front of her house
• in her room a close up of her face up against the window like the shot of her on the bus
• close up of her hand knocking the photo off the side
• before she takes the photo out of the frame show the broken glass
• dont show her dad is dead on the calendar just put something like "dad 2pm"
• follow hands around and placing photo on pillow, camera stays stationary on photo on pillow as she gets up
• we need to show it is another day instead of her just appearing at school again e.g. getting into bed shutting curtains etc...
• shot of trees/house in the morning then her getting breakfast again, close up of post it on table showing her mum has left her again
• quick shots of bowl in sink, grabbing bag, shutting door
• pan of front of school in the morning
• before bell rings show close up of her at her desk looking distant
• shot of bell ringing and her picking up all her books and leaving for the door
• when buying the coffee in shot 62, have the camera coming up towards her (like the first shot in graveyard) then turns her head and boy is stood there and offers to pay for coffee
• change the note on her hand as she holds her hand out to not make it too obvious that her dad is dead and just write something like "dad 2pm"
• shots of empty school before she leaves and show her leaving through the gates
• shots of road, trees, cars with music
• shot of her walking to graveyard
• camera infront as she is walking towards the grave then switches to it following her and then switches again to the camera looking at her from where the grave is and she walks towards it and looks down.

Inspiration from a music video

I watched the music video to Beyonce's song 'Broken hearted girl', i thought the song would be the kind of song we would use in our short film because it is about a girl who goes through a tough time in love and life, as the video shows, the music uses a slow beat and a piano in the background which also sets the sad mood of the video whic we are thinking of using in our short film.

The video is set on a beach which would be a nice setting for our short film because it uses waves of the sea to represent sadness and the waves could be her tears, however, we cant get to a beach to film it so we will use other places which are relaxing and maybe rain to represent tears and how the girl is feeling and how she feels alone in our short film.

The video is also filmed mainly in black and white but the symbolic things in the video are in colour to show they are important and stand out. I also like how the different shots fade in and out of eachother to create a slow sad feeling.

A particular part of the music video where beyonce is putting pettles back on a rose i really liked because it is quite symbolic to how she is feeling, i thought that it represented her getting her happiness back or something to do with love because it was a rose. and it gives the audience time to think and again and they could make their own ideas up about what this shows. I also liked this because of the way this scene is filmed.

This is England

Last night i watched 'This is England' on Film Four, and as i watched it i jotted down some ideas that i felt would work great in our own short film. Near the beginning of the film Shaun's mum reminds him of how his dad has gone now, the line being "dad's gone" this was then followed by the start of a slow piano tune that played for a series of time and made me empathise greatly with Shaun, i felt that the music was a big influence on this.

secondly whilst the piano music was played, shots of trees in the sun and different buildings were shown, with noone else in the shots. i felt that this was setting the scene of the film and also the piano gave the sense of loneliness, the different surroundings were reflecting Shaun's feelings.

Thirdly, the slow piano music, Fuori Dal Mundo, was signature to the film, and in several parts was reoccuring. i feel that this will be a good thing to do in our film as it will bring back the sad feeling to the film and connect all the shots, giving the film a nice smooth flow.



there is also an effective use of a photograph os Shaun's father who died in the faulklands war, this photo is looked at by shaun through the film several times, this is showing that shaun is sad about the death and shows his loneliness, and in the film actual words about his fathers death are not used frequently and so this photo helps the audience work out for themselves.

i managed to find a short trailer of the channel four film i watched 'the unloved', i spoke about it in an earlier post and now i have watched the trailer again i noticed that the camers work used is very naturalistic and gives it that feel of being seen through the child's eyes. the camera shots in this other clip are very invasive but she does not once look at the camera. the camera is seen as being hand held...a technique used frequently in the battle scene of 'saving private ryan' and something that in GCSE english i had to study quite religously. the effect of this 'hand held camera' really allows the audience to be in with the film and looks as if we a looking through a character's eyes.

unfortunately i could not embed the clip but if you follow this link you can see the invasove shots of 'the unloved' - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyLbGIieA-E


here is a clip of the hand held camera footage in 'saving private ryan'