First diary entry - Tuesday the 24th of April 2014
During our lesson with Pat, I discussed with Matt my 10 minute single camera drama idea. I discussed with him the basic plot and my intention of where I was going to film it, I also spoke about what I had already contributed to the project. That includes, filming a short scene, writing the first draft for the script and an idea generation list, composing various ideas to get my main result. He also spoke about his idea and what he was going to include in his narrative. We also gave advice on what would better each others ideas.
My idea for my 10 minute short single camera drama which I discussed with Matt is a post-apocalyptic thriller. It focuses on the two main characters Liam Westwood and George Lewis. It is a survival story about a virus which has broken out and infected humans in the UK. Making them rabid and crazy, attacking innocent civilians. Those with the virus have been marked with a black sign on their right hand. People have been told that if they come into contact with a marked one then they must kill them by any means necessary so to end the virus. Other than if they see one, they should barricade themselves in and wait further instruction. Liam Westwood and George Lewis are two friends who have evacuated in Liam's house so to avoid the virus. George is becoming increasingly ill from the virus, Liam is to afraid to act upon it and George is completely unaware. All he wants to do is find his girlfriend who has missing.
I also told Matt about my flashback elements which I will add into my 10 minute short single camera drama. There will be two flashbacks which helps to add up the backstories of the characters and explain how the apocalypse started.
Progress Diary Entry - Thursday the 1st of May 2014
Throughout the last week I have been completing various pieces of work, going towards my single camera drama short film. For example I went at the weekend on a location recce for one of my flashback scenes. This was at a field near The Ivory Rooms in Billericay, I took various different pictures and assessed the area. Checking out all the surroundings and sound to make sure it was suitable for the scene I wish to film there. I filled in a location report and recce checklist just to ensure that I didn't miss anything. I also filled in a risk assessment form of the location so that in case a risk occurs, I will know what to do. During this week I also did my final draft of my script, checking over all the mistakes that were present. As well as making the dialogue more interesting and getting rid of lines that aren't necessary.
Filming the opening sequence - Sunday the 4th of May 2014
Today on the 4th of May I filmed the opening sequence for my single camera drama short film. Shooting started at 2 o clock and commenced at 4.30pm. The opening sequence featured the character of Luke Philips (played by my friend Jack Hornett) being chased by an anonymous person. I filmed at various locations around Billericay, these all included the Queen Elizabeth park, Mill Meadows and the South Green area, as well as the back gate to my house. I filmed Jack running, using various different angles to capture the full essence of what I was going for. These different angles included, close-up, tracking, medium, long and extreme long shot.
Filming the house scenes - Monday the 5th of May 2014
Today I filmed the main scenes which take up the main feature of my single camera drama. As well as this I also filmed the rest of the dialogue scene between the characters Luke Phillips and Liam Westwood which occurs during my opening sequence. After filming the rest of my opening sequence , I then filmed all the house scenes mainly between the two characters Liam and George. The most ambitious part of the shoot today was covering my actor Jack in fake blood, making him look as menacing as possible. I also had to get my actor Sean Bilner who plays George Lewis to spew fake blood out of his mouth. This was also challenging as it was hard for him to not laugh, as well as this it also had to look as realistic as possible.
Re writing a scene in the script - Friday the 9th of May 2014
Today has been quite a stress in terms of my production, this evening at 11pm one of my main actors who is playing George has told me that he can no longer film his final scene tomorrow. Along with the three soldiers and the character Liam. Baring in mind I was meant to film from 11 until 1. But due to work commitments he can't make it, however I cannot re schedule to film another day because, this is a very important and large scene which will take a while and my main three actors are on study leave for exams post the 10th so they have said they want to focus on revision. So tonight I have had to re write the scene slightly, without the character of George appearing.
Filming the army scene - Saturday the 10th of May 2014
Today was the day to film my last scene, my main actor Sean who is playing George told me he could make filming. This was a large nuisance because I had re-wrote the script, however all I had to do was print off the old one. We picked up the three actors playing the soldiers at 10.50 and we then headed off to the field we were filming in. I told my actors Matt Flower who plays Liam and Sean Bilner who plays George to arrive at the field at 11.50. They were okay to walk to location because they only live a few door down. I asked them to arrive a bit later at that time because, I wanted to film a lot of cutaways of the soldiers just running and lots of close-ups. Therefore I did not need them until a bit later, once we finished filming all the cutaways , they then read through the script so that they could familiarise themselves with what they were saying. Once my other two actors turned up, we filmed all their dialogue exchanges. Filming finished at 1.20, some problems which occurred on the day were;
- Wind effected dialogue being heard
- Sun kept changing so my picture either looked bright or dark
- Started to rain
- Passers by in shot
The dialogue was easily fixed, as I turned on my high pass filter setting on my Rode Video Mic. This enabled the wind to be heavily reduced, pulling out the dialogue my actors were saying. The lighting was adjusted using my on camera white balance, the rest I will fix in post-production. As for the rain ,we had to postpone filming for 15 minutes, while taking shelter under a large tree. And for the passers by I positioned the camera differently and also waited for them to walk by.
Re-filming some of the character Luke - Friday the 16th of May 2014
So I am way into editing my single camera drama now, however a few of my classmates mentioned it to me and it made me re-think. But during my opening sequence, the character Luke Phillips is seen running, being chased by someone who we don't know. However as he runs to find cover in someone's back garden, he starts to walk into the garden as opposed to run. And this didn't really make much sense after people brought it to my attention, as if you were being chased you wouldn't just start to calmly walk in. So I figured I should re-film this bit. As well as that I am still a bit under the ten minutes and am worrying I won't make the full duration which has been set. So I decided that I would film a load more cutaways of Luke's hands and body when he is dead under the sheet. I started re-filming at three o clock and finished at half four. I am happy after the re-shoot that my shots look a lot better, as I compared them to the old ones. Just to see what improvements could be made, for example I changed around the white balance settings and altered the contrast to get a more gritty feel to it.
Re-filming in the field with the characters Liam and George - Saturday the 24th of May 2014
After completing my whole rough cut during post-production and moving on to spotting and colour grading. I realised a few of the shots of Liam and George in the flashback army scene were really bright, exposing all the colours making them really white. This definitely did not look good and after fiddling around with the colour effects for a few hours, colour grading just made the shots look worse and even lesser quality. So I decided that I would just re-shoot a few of these shots, baring in mind it was only three shots so it was not too much of an upset. So I started filming at two o clock and finished at half past two. I decided that after I filmed the re-done shots, I would film a few more pieces of dialogue while I was there, just so that I could pad the scene out a bit more and make the duration a bit more longer, just so that I would stand an even better chance of reaching ten minutes.
