Filming Diary

Filming Diary

4th of December

we started to film our opening sequence. We began shortly after school finished, starting with outside shots first as the daylight was going fast, we then moved onto the  subway shots where we realised that the lighting wasn't very good, and was the only source. This would cause the filming to become fuzzy and who become worse when zooming in. As a result we decided to re shoot some shots on the following Sunday.

6th of December

we continued filming in the morning, redoing the subway shots. We did this and it came out looking clear as there was daylight as well as the lights from the subway. We also added in a few different shots to make the opening sequence a little bit longer and to give it a wider variety of shots e.g. long shot and a slow pan.

7th of December

we began editing in lesson, firstly we uploaded the images onto the computer to preview the quality. As it was okay we placed the files onto iMovie and began putting them into order and overlaying the sound we had previously chosen. This all came together nicely however we still had shots to redo as they were either cut short or didn't have the whole image in the shot.

8th of December

we did some more editing, removing the heartbeat in the back ground, choosing the fade between each shot using either cross blur or fade to black. the fade to black transition gave it a slower pace however the cross blur looked more like someone coming in and out of conscious.

 we then put the more important roles names on their own slides to show their importance in the making of this opening sequence, however these shots didn't match the rest of the sequence and the text wasn't as clear to read, so might be removed.

The less important names were put in pairs on a plain black background to show that although they were in part of the production of this film they weren't as important as people like the director or actors.

10th of December

we did our final re shoot cutting the long shot down by adding in a slow pan and a track shot. we did this as when when we looked at our edit most of our shots were still and wanted a wider variety of shots. We did this re shoot after doing some audience research here people suggested making them shorter and having more movement.

 

14th of December

we tried using different fonts for the names and we ended up using avenir heavy.   One of the fonts we tried using is called the copperplate shown below. Although its quite plain we felt that it didn't look very good in the smaller size, which we needed as it was for the less important members of cast.

   

We ended up changing the length of the black screens to 3 seconds as this was enough to give the effect we wanted.

16th of December
we chose the name dejection as it goes well with our story. we also added the heartbeat sound back in towards the very end to bring the opening scene to a close. However the main part we edited was the passer by shots which were a mixture of a still shot and a tracking shot, we did a cut between the two shots to increase the pace of the shot as it is made to be a panicked scene and the build up to the shot inst completely relevant so didn't need to be too long. 

17th of December
This was our final day of filming and we recorded shots like the close up of the tablets Thomas took to kill himself, the first person shoot as if it was from his perspective and the voice over recording. We re filmed these shots to get a clearer better quality shot, to do with the visuals and audio. The reason for the tablet packaging shot was to give the audience a better understanding of what might have happened.

           

The script used to for the filming of the voice over - “14th of December 2015. This is the day I died. Although at this point of the story I didn’t know that I was going to die. Things haven't really turned out the way i wanted them to. I mean I used to have fun, have a girlfriend, a family. But that's gone now. Mum's depressed, Dad's always working, the only one with a hope in life is Jenny... But This is my story, my life... my death. The story of Thomas J Turner."

20th of December

On this editing day we added in the institutional element I created using Photoshop. We called it Stonehenge productions as it was a catchy name and had an image that was easily recognisable when the name is heard. The logo used the Stonehenge stones I n a line with a bold red underline and the company name underneath in a worn font found on DaFont. I tried to make this company image look professional but also basic so it was memorable at fit in with other production companies design method.

We also added in the voice over recording of Thomas, explaining about his life before the opening scene. we didn't want it to last too long and ruin the opening sequence and we didn't want it to over power the scene, so we kept to basic speech and monotonous voice.

 1st of January

This was the final editing day, where we just added finishing touches and perfections. One thing we added in was the Film 4 intro/ institutional element, as our film was going to be co produced. We also added in a sound/ memorable tune over the top of our own created institution to make sure people can recognise it in anyway possible. Another thing we added was more text to introduce who produced the film as this was a major point, this text was used in the same font as the rest of the text throughout. Finally we cut back the last shot to make it come to a black scree as the main characters head drops.

Below is our finished opening sequence and our last edit.