Recce

I will be filming in two different locations and I will have to consider potential issues that come with these locations.

Classroom: (Interior)

-I will need to ensure that the classroom I am using looks like an office. I will only shoot computers/desks to get an office feel, and avoid filming whiteboards etc.

-I will need to make sure that there is no one else using the classroom and consider its availability and if it is perhaps timetabled.

-Ensure that there is enough light, but not too bright.

-Noise from other students outside/next door may be a problem, I will have to consider whether I could control it or not.

-Make sure I have full permission from a teacher to use that specific room.

Old building: (Exterior)

I will only be filming outside briefly but there could be possible problems;

-I will have to film on a day where the weather is quite gloomy, to create tension and to set a darker feel.
-There cannot be any noise from traffic, which could be a potential problem in the location I will be filming.

-I will also need to make sure that I have somebody to take me to the place, which is convenient as it is by my Dad's work, who could take me there/back.

Risks and how I need to deal with them:
-I will need to consider that it may be raining when I film which would be a risk of damage to the camera so in order to eradicate this risk I will just take an umbrella so the camera and tripod are covered.

Preliminary Task

This is my final edit of my preliminary task. I hope you enjoy it!

Preliminary Task Evaluation

I really enjoyed creating my preliminary task, yet it was still quite daunting in the sense that I had all control of the camera and the editing, and the directing of my actors that I definitely wasn't used to! Before making my short film, I felt uneasy with the idea of having a camera that was not mine and having to produce something from it; I am not very good with technology, so I thought I was destined for the worst! However, with some practice, I got there and my confidence went from virtually non existent to quite high.

I encountered some problems with making my film. My first problem was the filming time. I had set myself the task of filming during our 1 hour and 30 minutes Media Studies slot and I found that I was rushing myself to quite the extent. If I had allowed myself more time and perhaps filmed outside of college, it would of given me much more time and I would have been able to fully perfect my mistakes. Another problem that arose from this was my actors; I had issues with their attendance so I was unable to film when I planned because they were not in college that day. Also, I had to ensure that my actors wore the same clothes every Media session to avoid all possible continuity errors.

To improve next time, I will definitely make some form of a decent plan to follow. This is because when filming I had a very basic plan and I frequently lost my train of thought and had to rely on my memory to tell me what I should do next, this was not efficient at all.

There were things that went well during filming too. As I filmed at college, it gave me the opportunity to ask my teacher if I had any problems with the camera or any other equipment, which came in very handy and was a huge benefit! I found editing all of my footage together very challenging because it was difficult to ensure it all looked seamless, however it surprisingly did not take me very long to do and I am happy that my film flows well, I cannot spot any continuity errors, which was what I was most afraid of finding.

Overall, I feel I have done very well in making my film and I am feeling much more confident in filming in the future.

Premises

One of our early stages of film planning was to create some premises, which is a one sentence summary of my film.

1- A supernatural thriller in which a journalist uncovers the truth of an abandoned factory.

2- A disgraced journalist tries to redeem himself by covering the story of the mysterious abandoned factory. 

3- A journalist tries to prove himself as a writer by covering the story of a factory, facing all sorts of danger on the way.

I prefer my second premise as opposed to the other two because it lets out all of the appropriate information without giving too much away which I feel is important. It is also the only one that actually explains the journalist's situation.

Moodboard

To help visualise our own ideas, we were set the task of making a moodboard in which we would include possible things we would include in our own film opening. For example, setting, props and characters. I found this very helpful as before I was unsure of what I would include in my film and how it would actually look, and it gave me the chance to put my ideas into pictures and make it seem much more real.

Below is my own moodboard, I was particularly drawn to the picture of the empty corridor because it emphasised what I would try and achieve in my own film; a sense of unknown and emptiness. I also particularly liked the image of the office desk as I could imagine something similar in my film for my character of the Journalist looking on his computer for a possible story.

Main task planning!

Before we actually start filming our opening to our film, we were set the task of taking photos of what we'd expect to see within it.

1- This was a rough idea of the kind of abandoned building I could use right at the end of my film opening. The idea would be for my main character to be reading a newspaper/some form of information with a picture of the building on, and then when the character puts the newspaper down the building will be standing in front of him. (preferably in a low angle shot unlike this picture)

2- This newspaper will appear when the character of the Journalist will be reading an old article about themselves after doing a bad article with faulty information. This will lead on to the character needing to prove themselves as a Journalist.