PLANNING/CONSTRUCTION:CREATING A MONOLOGUE

Today we created a video of us making a voice over narrative to go over our opening scene of the girl in the library. We started initially by trying to improvise the dialogue, but found this to be ineffective as we were unable to create the right tone and rhythm we wanted for the scene. So we decided to create a script. We watched the scene back and I wrote down a simple script that worked well with the scene. We decided to film this process using photo booth we then used a tool to record the screen so that both us recording and the film playing would be shown together. Amber then edited these two clips together on imovie in order to have the sound match up to the movement. 


Here is the final recording: 

CONSTRUCTION:FILMING THE FINAL SCENE

Today we filmed the final scene for our short film. We wanted an ending which had a happy outcome, and that shows good triumphing over evil, as these were the codes and conventions we had found when researching professional short films in our film genre.

To ensure continuity in our filming we watched all the footage we had shot and looked to see were we had left off in terms of costume set and camera angle. The last scene had been a shot of Aggie running out of the library. We started the filming with a establishing shot to show the corridor leading up to the library doors. We then had Aggie run around the corner and bump into Zack, (the nice guy); and making him drop his books upon which there was a sticky note with 'I see you got my sticky notes" written on it. We used an extreme close up to show the sticky note clearly, to suggest the idea that it was the nice guy leaving the notes all along.

We used a pan up to show the nice guy and Aggie both holding the book with the note on it, rising up together. We then end on a two person close up of the pair gazing into one another's eyes.

I used PicMonkey to create a collage of the photos taken from the film as well as action shots from the filming.

CONSTRUCTION: FILMING AN ADDITONAL BEGINING SCENE

After gaining feedback on our film, we were faced with the problem that it began very quickly, coming straight in with a monologue, We decided we needed an additional beginning scene whereby we ease the audience into the film and set the tone and genre. 

We wanted to show the protagonist in her own little world, daydreaming and showing her as a hopeless romantic. We did this by using a tracking shot as well as by having holding a collection of romance books. We used a mid shot/ reverse tracking shot to clearly display her. we then want to position her as unlucky in love and romance and so we chose to have a short confrontation with another boy, where the protagonist gets knocked and drops her books to the ground and delivers the line "why can't real guys be like the men in my stories".

We chose to have her say this as it positions her as a bookworm who prefers fantasy to reality. We used a two person wide shot to show this altercation and then an over the shoulder shot to display the books falling to the ground, we chose to do this as it gives the audience a clear view of the type of books she was reading, romance novels. Thus reinforcing the idea that she is a hopeless romantic. One of the book titles is "Love is Blind" this symbolises to the audience the idea that the protagonist dosent realise the player is a bad guy and that the other boy is the true loving romantic. 

The shot of the protagonist dropping her books is a match shot to the end scene where the nice guy accidentally bumps into her, this makes the connection between what she said about real guys being like the men in her stories. It shows that the nice guy could be the man of her dreams just like the men in her stories.

CONSTRUCTION: PLANNING THE COMPANY IDENT

Today we brainstormed for our company Ident using stop frame animation. We wanted something that acted as a pun. We wanted to create something artistic that could lend itself to a short animation sequence. We also had to think about what would work with our genre of film. I thought of the name "Built up Productions"- from this we thought about perhaps creating a city skyline, but thinking practically about creating this we felt it would not look as effective as we would have hoped.  So we decided to use Jenga bricks and build up a tower, once high enough we would then remove a selection of bricks until the tower tumbled down. This produced a comical meaning for our company Ident name and proved effective to watch. 

I have made a Bubbl, to display the thinking and planning process:

MY BUBBL

 

CONSTRUCTION:REFILMING THE DATE SCENE

We decided that to maintain a high quality and sleek look to our short film, we would once more re-film the date scene for our short film. We decided to set the scene in Ambers kitchen, setting it up to look as if it were a modern cocktail bar. We chose to write a rough script for the actors to follow so that the scene had direction and did not become silent or dull. This alternate location meant we were able to place the camera a lot closer to the actors, which meant there voices were picked up a lot better, by the camera and sounded clearer as well as there was no issue of background noise to interfere with the main dialogue. 

The previous footage lacked in skill full and eye catching camera angles and movements and so we wanted to include a range. Previously we had only used wide shots and over the shoulder shots, whereas this time we used shots such as two person mid shots, extreme close ups, focus pulls and reverse zooms.  The pull of focus proved effective as it communicates to the audience what is really important in the shot, it goes from putting the glasses in focus to placing the couple in focus. This is done to show the two engaged in conversation and clearly getting along well.

I made an ANIMOTO to display the film making process:

Snapchat Story. Filming the getting ready scene


EDITING:

Important aspects we wanted to focus on in the editing process of this scene included:
Sound- We used a sound bridge to connect a change in dialogue and visuals, to suggest a change of time, as if the date had progressed.

We used a cross dissolve, to make sure the footage didn't look choppy and that it flowed together smoothly, this feature also helped to suggest the movement of time, so that the audience know the date is longer than the footage they see.

To ensure our extreme close up was as tight as possible, whilst still being in focus and that it only showed two champagne glasses we cropped the shot using iMovie.