Re-shoot

Hey Mia and all

I won't be able to give us a lift to your house tomorrow after school and I most probably won't be able to take the lighting equipment into school on Tuesday. Really sorry. But we'll sort it out tomorrow with the whole group and hopefully find a way to do it.

Bhavika xx

Re-shoot Shooting List

We just had our re-shoot and here is a list of our shooting list:

• CU foot (putting tights on)
• CU putting on shoe
• MS establishing shot
• MS dialogue
• MS turning round to open draw
• MCU opening draw
• CU pan of draw
• MCU face in mirror
• CU smiling face
• CU evil face

Hopefully we got all the shots we need and they all turn out to be great!

- Bhavika xx

THE FINAL SHOOT - 14th DEC

Hello all!
Today we set out to get all our footage on tape, ready for exciting editing sessions (which i have become a Pro at!!! If i do say so myself!)
And amaziiiiiinglyyy...we managed to meet our target. There was a slight catastrophe in the form of Bhavika being unwell and therefore unable to join us :(

We wish her a speedy recovery and are certain that even though she's wrapped up in bed, media ideas are oozing out of her mind! Can't wait to hear them, Bhav!
With regards to the actual shooting, it was mainly the parts of me acting. Oh my goodness! Having to walk up and down the stairs AT LEAST 25 times killed me! But, we got some brilliant angles and a variation of shots, which was very pleasing :)
As for the remainder of the shoot, and final finishing touches to our necessary footage, me and mary worked together with sound, lighting, camera and admin! Tough, but we managed it spectacularly!
I'm very pleased with the whole process of doing stage 1 and 2 of production, and i think our FANTASTIC group truly deserve a pat on the back for effort AND achievement :D
I shall be updating with stage 3 and 4 coming along beautifully!

Bisma

Script

Hey guys This is the script we came up with for our opening sequence. It is a conversation between the killer (Emma) and the housemate (Yasmin). It will come after the titles in the second half of the sequence. Emma: (Knock on door) Come in Yasmin: (Opens door) Hey. You look dressed up. Your not going out at this time, are you? Emma: Um yeah…I’m just out to see a friend. (Pause) She’s dying to see me. Yasmin: Okay…well be careful, I’ve just heard some terrible things on the news. Emma: Oh, yeah, about all those poor women? I heard. It really scares me. Yasmin: Yeah, me too. Well I’m gonna go to bed anyway. Goodnight. Emma: Okay. Night. Yasmin: (Smiling) Have fun. (Closes door) - Bhavika xx

V for Vendetta (James McTeigue, 2005)

Ok, so this is the opening for V for Vendetta as talked about in my previous post. The getting ready bit is from 1:44 to 3:36 minutes - I think that makes 1 minute 52 seconds but my maths is truly terrible so you might want to check that... This cross-cuts between Evey and V getting ready, has lots of cutaways to the TV news thing - again, fairly similar to our idea - but obviously we're focussing on a killer getting ready so it'll be much more sinister, and from what we discussed today we know we're going to have a lot of ECUs and BCUs in the actual getting ready bit. Also, we're going to have title screens in between, and the housemate conversation. Anyway you might wanna watch a bit before and a bit after the getting ready bit - afterwards there's a low-level pan of her feet as she's walking - quite similar to our idea of a shot of the housemate's feet as she goes upstairs? I'm sure this will be helpful to us so do watch it :)

-Mia xx

Inspirizzled!!

So I was very kindly leant Se7en by Selina & I had another look at that just now for the opening, and Eamonn leant me V For Vendetta at some point so I thought, well, what's the harm in having a look at the opening for that too?
AND to my pleasant surprise what did I find but a girl getting ready!! AND THEY DO THE LIPS AND THE HEELS AND STUFF TOO!! I know right, wow-wow-wow-wow.
So I'm gonna find it on the wonderful youtube and post it up on here with some notes at some point 'cause I think it may be rather helpful to see how they do it. I know we've changed it a lot but I think this will still help, it's all quite close range I think.
So yeah, keep yo' eyes peeled liked a banana for it appearing soon!!
-Mia xx

[also, why is there not a bright pink font colour to reflect my extreme excitement & enthusiasm??]

Group Meeting Notes

Bhavika's idea changes:
-change the first pan from the widn chimes to CUs & ECUs of the killer getting ready
-in between pans (slower) of everything on teh dressing table, pictures of models etc. - this would make it clearer to the audience that they're supposed to take note of it
This prompted Mary to suggest that we alternate short & long shots (timewise, not distance), to keep the audience on their toes and build more suspense. Wooh! We're referring to short shots as 'suddens'. :D It is now an official media technical term.
When we have the housemate coming in it's gonna be normal distances and slower - everything's normal that side of the door, but on the inside it reflects her state of mind.
The Se7en opening titles inspired us to have sort of 'flashy', jittery titles - white text on a black background, not sure on the font yet, Mary suggested one but it's a bit too flurly - and sort of.. flashing.. shots. There was a suggestion of the suddens quickly turning negative before the title screens appear, but we're going to try it all out and see.
We're shooting this Friday and Saturday at Mia's house again ( - can everyone remember to bring their respective equipment/props and food as well as these things for Saturday! Cheers x)

-posted by the group

Response to Problem

Hey Mary

Ok don't worry. The only reason we weren't doing sunday is because everyone preferred to do the shoot on saturday. We were going to keep sunday as a sort of back up. If we have to do the shoot on sunday then we will. We need to have a meeting tomorrow so that we can sort it out together with Bisma and Mia too.

- Bhavika

Test Shoot and Real Shoot (Friday 28th and 29th November)

Reflections Both shoots took place at Mia’s house, as this is now the location for all of our opening sequence. We tried out plenty of different shots on Friday and did some planning. We got a lot of planning done on the real shoot on Saturday. We did all the planning and decided on the actual shot order in the first two hours and then filmed all of this in the next two hours. All in all it was very productive and loads of fun…I can’t wait to see the footage and actually edit it! Good work guys! - Bhavika xx

Second Test Shoot

Here are a few pics from our second test shoot at mine yesterday, which went so much better than last weekend's!

It was so helpful and I think we all have a better idea of how it will look now we've done some filming in a location we've decided on and have tested out some shots and props.



They're a bit blurry... but I'm sure you can see that we had loads of fun setting everything up!

Second Test Shoot

Bisma, if you could bring the heels that would be brilliant! And also, has anyone got red lipstick/know where we could get some red lipstick that's cheap but has a nice tube thingy?
I just looked through some of the test footage - and I thought I'd say now in case I forget later, but you know the bit with the wind chime pan? You can see you three and the camera reflected in the window! So we need to think of a way to get around that.
I think that was it, I'll see you guys later!
-Mia xx

Second Test Shoot -REFLECTIONS :D

heyy guys :)
Just thought i'd do a quick update having just finished our second test shoot. I have to say, we made a lot more progress this time around.
I also think we successfully used everything we learned from the first shoot and helped it to develop and improve today's footage.
I hope every one is excited and prepared for tomorrow's REAL SHOOT!!! Please do let me know if you guys need anything at all in terms of props or costume. I have a pair of high heels which could be used btw?

Also, i really think we made a smart move in changing the location. The predominantly indoor setting makes our jobs much easier!
See you tomorrow, everyone.
Bisma Xxx

Meeting Notes: Friday 28th November

During this meeting we made a joint decision to drop the location of the alleyway/carpark and instead stick to the killer getting ready in her room. We thought this would be a good idea as the idea was quite complicated and we thought having two scenes might be too much for the audience to take in in 2 minutes. We wanted to have some dialogue in the sequence and decided to have the killer's housemate come into her room at one point and then have them both exchange a few lines of dialogue.

We also came up with an idea which was inspired by the opening sequence of Seven. We are going to use loads of ECUs and CUs and add in effects such as flashes. We are also going to make the shots move/jig about. In between these shots we are going to have the credits as well as some pans of the beauty products and pictures of models. Now that the idea is simpler, we can now focus on building the mood and atmosphere through the mise-en-scene etc. Things are heating up...

- Bhavika :) xx

Test Shoot

Guys we need to book out the equipment for tomorrow!

We can do it tomorrow right?

It would be good if we all printed off equipment release forms beforehand I think,

to make it a bit quicker

And nooow m'off!

Byee my lovelies!

Mia xx

Props

Heyy! I just thought I would make a list of the little props we are going to need so that we can start preparing for the shoots. We might not need them all but I've them up in case.

• Black gloves
• A weapon (knife?)
• Red lipstick
• Heels/boots possibly red
• Hair brush
• A photograph of the killer with her ex boyfriend

And I looked at Mia's slide show and really like the dressing table. Plus there is a long mirror which we wanted to use so it could work!

- Bhavika xx

TEST SHOOT WOOOP!!

Okay, so, Mary's already done her little (or not-so-little) re-cap. Very biased i must say!
Overall i have to say i was very pleased with the test shoot and the final creases we managed to iron out in terms of story boarding. so GO US!
Despite numerous interruptions, snowy showers, strange cleaning staff and a very smelly car park, we managed to get everything we'd planned to shoot in the can!
We now have some set aims each, to be completed by our next meeting date, so, hopefully we're on the way to being the most organised group of Media-loving Latymarians!

Last reminder guys..sorry. If we could all possibly upload some stills of any location ideas for the first part of the shoot, that would be fantastic.
Other than that, happy planning guys! Let me know if you need me for anything...
Bisma
:)

Things we learned from the test shoot

1) Never trust alarm clocks. Ever. Always set at least three. If possible, construct a device to pour water over you or hit you with a heavy object at a certain time. NB: Not TOO heavy, you'll knock yourself out.
2) Listen to the weather report, and prepare for all eventualities. Everyone was freezing their socks off, and I got fairly soaked in the rain later on. From now on, we bring an umbrella, three pairs of socks, two scarves, a warm hat, two pairs of gloves, and handwarmers.
3) Lighting doesn't always stay the same within an interior location. Even underground, we were too exposed to outside light, and it didn't look like dusk. Also, for when we film later in the day, we ought to bring torches and stuff. =3
4) People have never seen cameras before, particularly little children. They always want to come over and have a snoop, and generally get in the way. I suggest getting some of that "Police Line, Do Not Cross" tape as a solution to this.
5) Not everybody in a suit is the manager. Sometimes they really are just cleaning staff.
6) If we act like we know what we're doing, people leave us alone. OK, this might not prove true in all occasions, but we got away with it today.
7) Just because you feel colder, doesn't mean it actually is. Which probably explains why we could no longer feel our toes, but why the snow had turned to rain.
8) We ought to THOROUGHLY double-check locations first. Why a church service is being held in a cinema, I don't know...but we ought to know beforehand.
9) It is difficult to disguise three people as one, particularly regarding footsteps. I can only hope there's something editing can do about that, but...it shouldn't be getting this desperate.
10) Test shoots are just test shoots. At the end of the day, we deserve a warm, comfy seat and a mug of hot chocolate, and it doesn't even matter if everything goes wrong. That's what test shoots are for, to reveal problem areas and give us time to consider how to fix them. Great job guys, and keep up the great work.

Mary