Month: October 2017

Risk Assessment

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While we were preparing to film we looked into having risk assessments so that we could limit any accidents that might happen during our days of shooting. We really want to try doing this because it is what major media conglomerates do while preparing to film.

This is the first standard table that we found online. The next one is a simpler design while also being effective at showing what the dangers could be:

The next table is much more detailed and clearer when explaining all the different steps that must be taken into consideration when filming. Because we want to be as prepared as possible we filled out our own risk assessment in this format by including several key things that could be a risk.

This was useful to us when filming and so was well worth making and we can see why big scale productions would definitely need one!

Production Log: 27/10/17

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We had an extremely early start this morning as we woke up at 4:30am in order to start Emilia’s hair and makeup. We had to get up this early because continuity is really important to us because we are filming on so many separate days. So we gave ourselves an hour to get completely ready and get Emilia to look exactly the same as she did on our previous filming day. We left at 5:30am to Skegness and we took my dog Maddie with us to act as the protagonist’s dog. We really wanted to catch the sunrise on camera and so we left extremely early in order to be able to do this. Our first problem that we encountered was that there was no where to park the car because neither of us had thought to bring any money for parking. However we found a street where other people had parked so we just parked there as well. We then used Google Maps to find our way to the beach. We didn’t realise exactly how cold it would be at 6am on the beach in the middle of October, so we were both freezing!

The beach was surprisingly busy at this time in the morning and so we eventually managed to find an empty stretch of sand, even though it had wind turbines in the back. However, once we got closer we found that there was a sign saying ‘no dogs allowed’. we were really frustrated because we knew that we should have researched this before we arrived and we didn’t want it to be another trip wasted. But after reading the sign properly it turned out that dogs were allowed because it had passed high season and so the beach wasn’t a holiday spot anymore.

We were so relieved to see this and so we immediately started walking towards the shore because we were eager to start filming before the sunrise was completely over. We started setting up the equipment and found that the camera had almost no charge left on it! We thought we had been charing it all night but it turns out that we had forgotten to switch the plug on. We knew that we had to film as quickly as possible but we were nervous that Maddie wouldn’t behave properly as she was quite excited to be at the beach so early in the morning. However, we planned out all of our shots so that we could do it as quickly as possible and we kept turning the camera off so that we saved as much charge as possible. The camera eventually died but it was fine because at that point we had gotten all the footage that we wanted. We are really happy with the way our shots turned out today and it turns out we got there at a really good time because the sun was at just the right point to look really nice on camera.

Once the camera had died we decided that we might as well stay at the beach and record as much diegetic sound as possible for our films audio. So we got the audio recorder out and filmed the sound of waves, footsteps, and Maddie digging and barking. We then realised that the wind was so strong that you couldn’t hear any of the audio, so we used Emilia’s coat as a wind block and re-recorded everything again.

Here’s what the beach looked like that day;

Production Log: 26/10/17

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For todays filming me and Emilia were filming the Something New portion of our film at the Kinema In The Woods in Woodhall Spa. We were allowed to film in an empty screen from 9:45-10:45am, considering that there are only two screens in the whole cinema this was very generous! Emilia arrived at the Kinema on time with all the equipment, however my bus which was supposed to arrive in Woodhall Spa at 9:30 was extremely late due to people not knowing when they should get on or off. But it was fine because luckily Emilia was sorting everything out at the Kinema so that when I finally got there we could start filming straight away.

As soon as I arrived we started taking photos for our blog and for our posts and review, we mainly took pictures of Emilia sat in the empty chairs because we thought that we should make the most of the empty screen. Then we started filming straight away. Everything was going very well and exactly according to plan, until we had another disaster! The lights were both connected to the same extension cable and when Emilia went to move one of the lights the other one started tipping. It fell over and smashed all over the floor! There was glass all over the Kinema floor and we were running out of time…

I went to ask for a dust pan and brush from the concierge desk, thinking we were going to get in massive trouble, but it turned out they really didn’t care. In fact they just laughed about it!

We started sweeping the glass and it took such a long time because we wanted to make sure we got every little bit so that no one would hurt themselves and we wouldn’t get in any trouble. After we had sorted all this and reset the lights so that it was similar to what it was before,  we didn’t have a lot of time left and so we had to get creative and use our phone torches again. we packed away really quickly and then decided to film some more outdoor shots. We filmed the protagonist entering and leaving the location, and some shots of their car leaving and arriving.

We were about the head to the Independent Shop in Boston when Emilia opened her emails and found that the shop had cancelled on us. This was extremely frustrating because now we have no idea where to film our ‘Something Blue’ scene. But we still headed to Boston because we needed another SD card as we were running out of storage. We thought that to make the most of our time in Boston we should scout for new locations, so we tried but we couldn’t find anywhere that was independent and big enough for us to film in. After this we went back to my house and ordered a new light bulb to replace the one that we smashed.

Production Log: 24/10/17

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Today we planned to film at the library and do some car shots in Lincoln. We booked the library from 8-9am as we were allowed to film before the general public came in.

We woke up at 5am as we had to do Emilia’s hair and make up exactly the same and we planned that it would take about an hour to do this. We had to leave Emilia’s house at 6am because we were picking up a spare camera from one of our teachers at 6:30am. We managed to leave on time and get to Lincoln for 7:30am like we had planned.

We saw that it should be approximately a five minute walk from the car park to the library however we didn’t take into account that we would get lost and walk in the opposite direction for about 15 minutes. We finally reached the library at 8am but we couldn’t find the entrance as we wee told to use a side entrance and we would be let in. Eventually we found the entrance and began filming at about 8:15am.

This meant that we only had 45 minutes to set up, film everything and pack everything away! Because of the set back we had even less time to film this key scene and so we had to set up quickly while also being as quiet as possible because although the library wasn’t technically open there were still a few people reading in there and people were working and setting up in silence so we didn’t want to make loads of noise and curse a disruption. While filming we noticed a window that lead to a second floor about 25 feet above us. We thought it would be perfect for an extreme down shot and luckily we were able to go into the restricted area to quickly do a few shots showing the whole of the library floor.

 

Before we knew it the general public started coming in and I had to run downstairs to start packing away as quickly as possible. We went outside to film some shots of our protagonist walking, however it was just our luck for the camera to run out of charge! However, we are happy with the shots that we managed to get and we are thankful to the library for letting us film there. Once we got back to Woodhall me and Emilia went to collect the charger for the camera and hopefully our old camera would’ve been fixed. Our old camera was still broken however our teacher let us borrow his camera for the whole of the holidays!

Production Log: 23/10/17

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Today was our first day of filming and we were booked into Zucci’s Restaurant in Woodhall Spa for 5:15pm because it we planned that it should start getting dark then. However, once we arrived we remembered that we had not brought all of our props for the table with us. This was really stressful because these were essential props and it was getting dark very quickly. We took a trip to the local supermarket, Budgens, and bought some Vimto squash and a bouquet of roses to scatter the petals across the table. We managed to arrive back at Zucci’s by 5:45 and so it was just about completely dark, but luckily we still had time to set up. However, once we arrived at Zucci’s we realised we had completely forgotten to get candles! Luckily Emilia works at Zucci’s and was able to ask the manager if we could borrow some. The staff were all really nice and let us borrow as many candles as we needed, as well as lighters and glasses for the wine (Vimto). Because it was so dark it was lucky that we actually managed to remember the lights. We filmed on the outside patio and Zucci’s had an extension cable that we were able to use to plug the lights into because there were no outside plug sockets.

Whilst we were planning we failed to take into account exactly how long it would take us to set up the scene. We had to rip off all the petals from the roses and lay them evenly across the table, whilst keeping them away from the candles so that they wouldn’t set fire. We also had to set up the fairy lights in a nice cute way so that it would look good on film. We finally found the perfect place to put them after trying several failed ideas. We wrapped them around a gate that was at the end of the walkway to the table. Because it was so dark it made the fairy lights look like they were floating which was really pretty. However, this did make it more difficult to film as the various different light points from both the fairy lights and the two filming lights ended up casting strange looking shadows. We ended up shifting and rearranging these for a while until we found the perfect place.

Here is what the table looked like:

After we had finally finished setting up (which took an hour longer than we wanted it to) we were able to start filming. We did a few practice shots in order to find where the right lighting was and what shots looked really good, etc. However, once we had done these a huge gust of wind came and blew the petals everywhere! Not only did it blow the petals but it also blow out the candles and blew wax everywhere, it was a disaster! We had to pick up all of the petals and try and place them in exactly the right place that they were before because otherwise the continuity of our film would be all wrong. We kept having to refer back to the viewing screen on the camera and watching all of our practice footage in order to find the best placements. But it was fine and we started properly filming again. But then about six shots in we were looking over our footage and we saw that the camera bag had been in the background the whole time. So we had to start again! Needless to say, we were a bit behind on our schedule…

By the time we had sorted out all of these problems it was already 7:30pm and pitch black outside. Because of this we had to rely completely on our lights to light up the scene. Considering that we had only practiced a couple of times with the lights we were pretty happy with how well we managed to light the scene. We also used our phone torches to get the close ups lit up properly where they were out of reach of the main lights. We managed to get a lot of footage that we were happy with and it was already past 8pm and the restaurant was starting to get quite busy. So we decided that we didn’t want to overstay our welcome or annoy anybody, staff or customer, so we decided to pack away and finish up filming. We started tidying and found that there was still wax stuck to the table to we had to clean it so it looked as immaculate as it did when we arrived. By the time we had finished and were ready to leave it was 8:45!

Once we arrived back at Emilia’s house we went to use the camera and see our footage and a massive black mark had appeared across all of our pictures. Luckily our footage from Zucci’s was safe but we didn’t know how to fix the camera…

 

 

Booking The Kinema

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Our final booking that we had to complete was the Kinema In The Woods in Woodhall Spa. We left this one until last because we wanted to go in and ask in person because Emilia did her work experience her there and so she knew them, and its not far from her house to walk to. We really like the look of the Kinema because it has an aged look and looks like a very typical cinema with the red velvet seats and red décor all around the room. Originally we thought it might be a problem to film a ‘Something New’ scene in such an old building, however we then realised that the AirDrop feature is all we really need to show the something new and the Kinema just acts as a backdrop for this.

We walked into the Kinema and went straight to the refreshments desk to ask where we could find a manager. We started speaking to the lady and the manager came out as we were walking. Unfortunately as we were walking up to them Emilia walked straight into a bin and it got knocked straight over and broke in half! We sat on the floor and tried fixing the bin and putting everything back in as it was very full. While we were doing this the manager was watching us and trying to ask us what we wanted, and the lady from refreshments was running around us trying to clean it all up! It was so embarrassing! After we cleaned most of it up we asked the manager about possibly filming in an empty scene and he said he had to check. He walked off and didn’t come back for ages so we were sure they would say no! However he came back and said that we were able to film in a private screen for a whole hour on the morning of the 26th of October. They even said that they would light it for us and allow us to use their plug sockets to use our own lights.

Filming Schedule

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We have finalised all of our filming locations and dates now and so we are able to create a finalised filming schedule. This schedule will help us to remain on track and use our time wisely when filming.

Monday 23rd October:

  • Zuccis Restaurant: Filming outside the restaurant is booked from 5:15pm to 7:15pm. This is the first place we want to film because Emilia works here and so we can definitely film here. We will film the scene at night and we found that the sun should start setting at 5:15pm so it will give us time to set up if we arrive at this time. We will be hanging fairy lights and decorating the table with rose petals.
  • Filming outside: We will film some shots of the fairy lights and surroundings at night from 7:15pm onwards.

Tuesday 24th October:

  • Lincoln Library: Filming is booked before general public admittance. From 8am until 9am. So we will arrive early and set up quickly in order to make the best use of our time.
  • Car shots: 9:30am-11:30am. We could do these whenever, however it makes more sense to use our free time in Lincoln so that we don’t have to keep returning on different days when the layout of the car park is different. This will help our fils continuity.
  • Filming on Steep Hill: 1:30pm-3:30pm. We have picked this time because there will be some people walking around however it shouldn’t be too busy as it is past lunch time and most people will be at work at this time.
  • Poster Shots: 4pm-5pm. The lighting should be getting softer outside at this time and so we want to get some good shots in that we could possibly use in our film poster. We want as many shots as possible in order to have more options and not be stuck when creating our poster.

Thursday 26th October:

  • Kinema In The Woods: Booked from 9:45am – 10:45am. We have been given permission to film in an empty screen here, and so we will make the most of this by also doing some poster and review shots. Luckily Emilia lives in Woodhall Spa near to where the Cinema is so we will be able to get there on time.
  • Independent Shop (Boston): 1pm-2pm

Friday 27th October:

  • Skegness Beach Shots: 5am-7:30am. We will have to arrive here extremely early because we want to get as many shots of the sun rising as possible. We also want to be able to do poster shots.
  • Poster Shots: 8am-9am. The sun should be fully risen by this time and so we want to have a lot of poster shots of the beach because it is our most scenic filming destination.
  • Church Filming: 12pm-2pm. We have been been given the opportunity to film in St Botolphs Church in Boston. This is near to where I live and so we will be able to hopefully film for longer if they let us, and take poster shots because we don’t have to leave at a certain time.

 

Booking The Lincoln Library

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Because of our success with booking Zucci’s we decided to move onto a bigger booking. We chose to use a formal approach when booking the library as we didn’t know anybody that worked there and had never been there before.

We went on their website and found the contact page and found their email address, we then emailed them this:

“Dear Sir/Madam,
We are currently in the second year of studying A Level Media Studies at Queen Elizabeth’s Grammar School, Horncastle. For the coursework aspect of this qualification we are required to create a five minute short film. We were wondering if it would be possible for us to film a brief, yet extremely important, scene within the Library on Monday the 23rd of October or on Tuesday the 24th of October. Thank you,
Yours sincerely, Emilia Pearce and Emelia Rodgers.”

We asked about two possible dates because we wanted to film as close to the start of the holidays as possible so that we could have days for possible reshooting if we needed to do this. We asked about two dates because we wanted to be as polite as possible and not seem too pushy.

The library replied really quickly and were really nice, they said:

“Hello,
You are welcome to film in the library but it would have to be before we open to the public from 8.00am -9.00am on either of those days.
If you would like to come at that time please let me know and I can make the caretaker aware of your arrival.
Kind regards
???????”

We were so happy that we had been able to book another location, and so we replied with this email:

“Hello ??????,
That would be perfect thank you. We shall be there on Tuesday the 24th of October at 8am! Thanks again,
From, Emilia Pearce and Emelia Rodgers.”

 

Film Review: La La Land

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In order to continue with my research into the romance genre I am going to continue watching romance films and see how me and Emilia can use similar techniques when creating our film. the most recent romance film I have watched is Damien Chazelle’s Oscar award winning film La La Land (2016).
This film follows the story of Sebastian (Ryan Gosling) who is a jazz player, and Mia (Emma Stone) who is a struggling actress. The two meet each other several times and eventually fall in love and help each other to succeed. Sebastian encourages Mia to write her own one woman play, and Mia encourages Sebastian to pursue his dream of owning his own jazz club. Ultimately the two succeed but they break up, they meet again five years later but do not speak and instead choose to let their success speak for them.

This film is recognised as a romance film due to several different reasons and RottenTomatoes stated that “La La Land breathes new life into a bygone genre with thrillingly assured direction, powerful performances, and an irresistible excess of heart.”[  

Some romantic aspects of the film that we might want to include in our own film are:

  • Not clearly showing the love. In La La Land the aspect of love is held off and is kept unknown to the audience for a while. Even in the end the love is gone but that doesn’t stop it from being a love story. The director Damien Chezella said “To me, if you’re telling a story about love, love has to be bigger than the characters.” We want to show this by showing not just the romantic nature of the characters but also of the setting and the nostalgia behind using the age old phrase “something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue.” We feel that by using such a nostalgic and romantic saying such as this, and by using such grand settings as a cathedral and library we will be able to include all kinds of romance that aren’t just revolved around two people.
  • La La Land has a beautiful colour palette that creates a golden effect around the two protagonists. I think that this effect is really what takes the film to the next level in terms of how romantic it is because it makes the two seem as though they are in their own golden world and are uneffected by harsh everyday things. We really want to use this effect in our film because we feel that it would really compliment the settings that we are using.
  •  The final thing that we really want to take from this film is the soundtrack. The soundtrack always relates to the characters feelings and helps to emphasise their relationship. For example, the first time they speak to each other is after Mia watches Sebastian play his favourite song on a piano in a restaurant. This meeting stays with us and we are reminded of how in love they used to at the end when they are broken up and Mia sees Sebastian play the same song again at his own jazz club. The films soundtrack is very jazz based and this compliments the golden colour palette of the film because it gives the feel of being whisked away into a perfect world. We definitely want to focus on having a great soundtrack that gives our audience the same effect of being whisked away into a romantic world.

Overall, I really enjoyed this film and think it is an extremely good romance film as it enables the audience to become completely transported into the world of the film and become completely encaptured by the characters.

Practising The Makeup Look

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The makeup in our film is hugely important to us as we took a long time to figure out exactly we wanted and what colours we thought would be good. Not only do we want it to look good, but we also want it to be the same on every day so that our film has good continuity. In order to practice this look so it can be perfect everyday Emilia did a practice and filmed it so that we could look back on it and recreate it perfectly everytime.

“I began by concealing the dark circles under my eyes and put on a powder to balance the colour of my face all over. I then filled in the eyebrows. However, I did this before I started to record! By filling in the eyebrows, I will be able to ensure that they look the same every time that we film. When filming, I will also wear foundation on the skin rather than the powder as foundation will control the colour of my skin so that it is the same in each shot, which will therefore ensure continuity. I then started to contour the cheekbones. I have decided to do this because it will make the face look more structured and so will fingers crossed make me look older! I then use a white powder in order to accentuate and emphasise the contouring in a further attempt to make the face look more structured. Then I use the darker colour in order to contour the nose, forehead and chin for the same reason. After that, I begin on the eyeshadow. Firstly I use a white eyeshadow all over as this will help the colours put on top to pop on camera! I then add a slightly pinky tone to the majority of the eye lid on both eyes. Afterwards, I add the more pigmented pink to the eye and blend it in. This pink will represent love and romance in our short film. I then begin to highlight the certain areas of the face that I want to stand out. This includes the cheekbones, bridge of the nose, central forehead, eyebrow bone and chin. After that, I add a white illuminator into the inside corner of the eye along with glitter in order to brighten the eyes. This will hopefully bring attention to the blueness of the eyes within our short film! I then apply mascara onto the eye lashes in order to make them seem longer. After, I add a pinky colour to the lips. I use the darker colour on the whole of the lip and then add the lighter colour into the centre of the lips; this will hopefully add structure to the lip and will emphasise yet again the use of the colour pink. Finally, I add some lip balm over the top. Not only will this make the lips glossier, and so more noticeable, but will also make them more plump! I now feel confident that I will be able to re create this look every day when filming!”