Filming Diary Day 2: Rural Area Filming

Today we filmed the following portions of our social realism film opening:
Large section of the chase scene (close ups, POV shots and long shots)

Small amount of dialogue (POV, low angle and over the shoulder)

The second day of filming was as equally successful as our first; if not more so than our first day of filming turned out. With regards to filming we had very little problems as mercifully the weather held off for our second day of filming, being a marked improvement over the weather we experienced on our first day of filming. Today we filmed the chase sequence of our film opening, the main crux of the film opening and the main action that the audience will experience in the opening moments of our film. Therefore, although the shots that finally appear in our film opening are few with regards to the amount of screen time the chase sequence in the film opening is given, we wanted to make sure that the chase sequence was filmed correctly in order to give the sequence it's full effectiveness.  We encountered very little difficulties with regards to our filming today apart from Zach and me entering the path of some handheld shots which required re-shooting once our mistakes had been realised. To rectify the issues encountered, some re-shooting was required which we dealt with effectively.
Another minor issue that we encountered was the sounds of leaves underfoot creating unwanted sounds that were then audible on the camera, this was an expected problem however as we were shooting in a forest. To overcome this issue, the director and cameraman (me and Zach) had to attempt to remain as quiet as possible during the proccess of filming.  
Aiming to stick to the codes and conventions of the social realism genre we used mainly static shots with the use of wide angle shots to stick rigidly to the codes and conventions of the social realism genre in our own film opening.  I feel that we were largely successful in this and I look forward to the final day of filming at a later date.

Filming Diary Day 1: Urban Area Filming

Today began the first day of filming for our film opening of a new fiction film of our particular genre of social realism. Today we filmed the following elements and aspects of our film opening.
Day 1: Intro scenes (Master shot, long to close to mid shot sequence, shot reverse shot) Dialogue (Whole sequence of convo) Beginning of Chase (Match on action, shot reverse shot and mid shot) as well as the beginning of our chase sequence.

Today was a very successful day with regards to the progress of the filming of our social realism film opening in that we were able to progress both effectively and efficiently as well as productively during the day. Another success of today's filming was that we were able to stick to our assigned roles highlighted in the filming schedule without any major problems being incurred. Although whilst we were able to plan for many things on the run up to our filming, there were a number of elements that we were unable to successfully account or plan for. In particular, it was the weather that had a detrimental effect and impacted negatively upon our progress for the day as with both wind and rain being present during the filming times we had planned we had issues with capturing audio onto the camera effectively and more importantly ensuring that the recording equipment such as the camera was kept dry and not damaged by the damp weather.  Unfortunately the weather was an uncontrollable element although the upside to the dismal weather was that it offered the effect that we were looking to exploit and translate to the viewer in that the weather acted as a symbolic metaphor for the foreboding nature of the scene.
We were able to overcome the sound issues by using a human block standing in the direction facing the wind so that the sound quality was not distorted or disrupted by the wind conditions. The human block that was used was me as when I was not giving guidance and support to the actors in how we wanted  the scenes to be played out, I did my best to help out in other areas. In this particular case, I aided the group by acting as a human block to improve the sound quality for our film opening.

AS Media Finished Film Opening

Below is the link to our final, finished film opening for the course. As a group we would very much like to thank our actors for their dedicated time, effort and commitment in contributing to the success of our film opening as their accomplished, gritty and realistic performances greatly added to the accomplishment of the finished piece. Through their great skilll they brought our script to life in a very effective manner. The cast that appeared in our film was as follows:
Noah Davis as Creegan
Evan Drew as Toby

Once again without the support of our actors the film opening would have been far less effectively realised and thanks to the actors support, the film opening serves it's effectiveness to a far greater degree.
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OS4F7-6iYt0

Editing Progress

Week One

Editing our film opening has been a relatively trouble free affair aside from a few technical issues to begin with. At the start of the editing process to begin with we experienced some difficulties in getting our video footage that we had filmed into a format compatible with use on an Apple Mac as it was only playable through the use of a Windows PC. Although rectifying this issue was a time consuming and monotonous event and hampered our editing progress to a certain degree, once set upon the right path, good progress was eventually made on the editing aspect of the film. During this first week of editing we have been able to achieve the following: 

The Intro scene, the master shot, the main block of dialogue as well as editing the final chase scene, the climax to our piece.

Editing has gone both quickly and smoothly apart from a minor hiccup to begin with, with issues arising from the importation of the clips as they were not converted to the correct format for successful importation into our movie folder on Imovie. With this issue quickly being rectified through our quick thinking we were able to push ahead with our editing regardless after seeking help in how to successfully convert our clips.

It was after the initial editing progress that was of a nauseatingly slow pace to begin with due to the lack of footage available to us, that our teamwork shone through however as we were able to work quickly, efficiently and professionally to make up for lost time that was unfortunately incurred by plaguing technical issues that had for a short while blighted our progress.

Week Two

After the setbacks encountered during our first week of editing, I believe that we were due a bit of good fortune on our second week of editing, and it was good fortune that served us well on our second week of editing as we were able to make good, solid, robust progress with our editing this week as we were able to successfully accomplish the following areas of editing this week:

The chase sequence in its entirety, the dialogue section of our film opening between protagonist Toby and antagonist Creegan, as well as completing the intro and climax we also added and mainly edited the “Vlog” section of our film opening. All in all, this week has been a very productive one in terms of editing in which productivity rather than crippling technical issues was thankfully, far more of a prominent feature than last week.

Week Three

This week was largely one where we aimed to tidy things up in terms of our editing and tweak minor details of our film opening such as placing a soundtrack over our edited footage. The quality of the soundtrack and music used in our film is of a very high, exceptional quality and Ben should be congratulated on his efforts as clearly when put with our film footage evidence of hard work is clearly and predominantly evident.   

   

    

Filming Schedule

To ensure that our filming runs as effectively and efficiently as possible on the days of filming we have decided to create a filming schedule to ensure that we use the time available to us as effectively as possible. Additionally, having a filming schedule enables us as a group to plan effectively on the day of filming and to ensure that progress is made on the days of filming so as not to counter productivity and to avoid disrupting constructive work. Enabling the use of a filming schedule also enables the group to stick to a time schedule so that our aims for each day may be fulfilled and large portions of the film may be successfully shot. Another aid that the filming schedule is successfully able to necessitate is that it assigns responsibility to members of the group, so that we as a filming group know precisely what we need to accomplish in order to achieve a successful and trouble free few days of filming. This ensures that we know exactly what the roles are for each of the members of our group and nobody is lacking in pulling their weight within the group. As overall director of the piece, my job that I will be aiming to fulfil successfully on the days of filming is to make sure that everybody in the group, including the actors, is performing their roles to an optimum standard to achieve the best results possible for the group. The filming schedule also has contained within it timing slots so we as a group know definitevely by which time sections need tyo be complete, in order to successfully progress onto the next stage of filming.

Audience Expectations and Audience Survey

 

 

As our greatest and harshest critics of our film opening and with the ever increasing expanse of technological mediums becoming ever increasingly accessible and available, everybody and anybody has the power to turn their hand to that of a film critic. This has both advantages and disadvantages in our technologically advanced world.  This has both positive and negative implications for us as a film crew, as messages and receptive reactions can spread quickly in the modern technologically advanced age. Therefore, to make sure a positive message is spread and to effectively fulfil the target demographics’ expectations were our film to be released publicly in a cinema we have decided to carry out an audience survey to assess what the audience would generally be looking for to inspire them to travel to a cinema to view our film as well as justifying the expenditure so commonly associated with attending the cinema. Audience satisfaction is paramount and a necessity to keep the viewer engaged, and to remind them also of the fact that there trip to the cinema was in fact not a waste of precious valuable time or money. As a small independent film crew turning a profit or breaking even on box office ticket sales would be a key part of the film process upon the film’s release in a public house such as a cinema. Positive audience reception and feedback of the film would be a crucial part to the film’s release therefore in any profit making exercise. As expected in turn the film would need to be of good quality.

Below is the link to our audience survey created by Zach to initially gauge our demographics initial views and opinions as well as expectations of what they would hope to see in a film of the Social Realism/ Thriller Genre and what for them would justify a trip to the cinema were our film to be put out on public release.
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/QS329BG

  

The expectations of our audience who would come to see our film would be for our film to be an enjoyable and pleasurable viewing experience. However, in contrast to this statement as our film is predominantly of the social realism genre they will also be expecting a harsh, urban, gritty feel to the film to represent the lower and working classes sometimes encountered through normal everyday situations. I would hope that our film opening will effectively represent the harsh urban realities commonly faced by people living in financial hardship or difficulties brought about by the economic stranglehold of which they are not a party of blame, moreover, an innocent party caught up in the farce.

As a general expectation our audience will be expecting our film to stick to the Codes and Conventions of the Social Realism Genre as seen through a master-class from the two directors of Shane Meadows and Danny Boyle the helmsmen of This is England and Trainspotting  respectively.  This will give the audience a great deal of satisfaction in seeing the Codes and Conventions of the genre being implemented into our film opening.

Below are the Codes and Conventions that we will be aiming to conform and stick to in the production of our film opening:

Location Shooting (not studio or constructed sets.) Throughout our own film opening we will aim to shoot in realistic, natural and outdoor locations because it will give a far more aesthetically pleasing feel to the location and therefore the storyline as the events will seem far more believable given the naturalistic setting as well as a more realistic feel to the piece in general.

· Non- Professional Actors or new comers to the acting ‘scene.’ As both actors that we have procured for our film opening are of a similar age to that contained within the group, both actors are not professionals and are therefore amateurs. Not only does this allow the film opening to stick rigidly with the Codes and Conventions of the Social Realism film opening it allows the actors to explore freely what their capabilities are and really have their ability shine through the camera lens, allowing their performances to appear far more authentic and natural.   

 

· Semi- improvised scripts. This is a fantastic opportunity for actors appearing in Social Realism films as it allows them to explore in great depth and creativity their performance and explore more to their characterisation by being allowed the freedom to semi- improvise portions of the film which can have an extremely positive effect upon the outcome of a scene that is being filmed. As it is common practice in the acting profession and the media world at large for that matter to be directed by the script, freedom within the world of film is a rare yet tantalisingly exciting opportunity for directors, actors and audience members. This is what we will be encouraging our actors to portray in their performances for our film opening, encouraging them to take initiative and if they feel so inclined to do so edit the script in whichever way they feel may necessitate a more realistic portrayal of their character. 

 

· Both humour and seriousness, which provides an obvious contrast. Humour and seriousness provides obvious, opposing contrasts to one another as they remain on opposite ends of the spectrum with regards to human emotion. It is often extremely interesting to explore both sides to individuals within a story as this provides countless new opportunities for character development to take place as well as the possibility of allowing the free-flow of the story in an exciting new direction. During our film opening we will be aiming to provide contrast between humour and seriousness, with the humour’s intention in the piece aimed at alleviating some of the dark and foreboding subject matter covered in the piece and used to act as comic relief for the audience.

 

· The erosion of regional identities, breaking down of social stereotypes. Interestingly this is one particular convention which both films consistently fail to follow as regional identities are represented, and largely stereotypically at that. However, I feel that, if anything, this all but adds to the overall effectiveness of the films and further aids to strengthen the messages that through the world of film they wish to promote.

 

· Wider Social issues explored by emotional and dramatic individual stories. This provides a deeper layer of contextual meaning and understanding to any film and links to personal characters in an individualised way as they try to confront and overcome personal demons and innocuous hindrances that lead to them being free of burdens that anchor them to a degrading, pitiful level.  This is something which, if our film were to be extended to full feature length we would explore Toby’s personal struggle upon overcoming his personal mental trauma as he decides whether it was a good or bad decision to kill Creegan, one which later in the film he would continue to question as the outcome of his decision still haunts him.

· Triumph over adversity. This an area that is a very central one within our film opening, as although the story is set within a dark, oppressive and menacing world of the drugs ‘scene’ and culture, there is still a sense of an antagonist and protagonist character within our film opening. Creegan is seen as the protagonist as his role is that of the drug dealer, making sizeable gains in profit due to his immoral gains in people’s dependency on the drug which he supplies. However, in contrast to Creegan’s control Toby acts an anchor that aims to thwart Creegan’s operation, the only logical way of doing this is through removing Creegan in the only conceptual way Toby can think of, that of murder.

Hopefully, by fulfilling audience expectations through sticking to the codes and conventions commonly presented in films of the social realism genre we can add our film to the ever expanding list of successful social realism films that are continually being produced.  

Music Research

In any film opening, Music is especially effective in translating the mood and intended atmosphere of the piece to the audience members. Through music, a void or drop in action sequences or lack of speech for example can help to fill the void of silence left by the absence of sound other than music and can generally dictate the feelings and emotions that the audience should be feeling towards certain characters and their emotional situation. For example during a chase sequence in order to connote feelings of rising panic and tension and general excitement, feelings that the audience would generally be feeling at this point, quick short sharp thumping music can aid this general feeling of excitement.

There are a wide, vast array of emotions that an audience can experience, aided in their effective expression and translation to screen through the use of music such as sadness and a feeling of desolate, isolated loneliness, all of which are able to be effectively communicated through the successful implementation of music acting as another means in which to communicate characters emotions or perils that they may be experiencing more effectively creating a far stronger bond and a closer relationship with the audience.

Examples where music has been used to great critical and fanatic acclaim:

 

         Indiana Jones films- Part of the success of these iconic and timeless classics and undoubtedly what hooks the audience onto the storyline of these films is the music’s necessitating and catchy rhythm which undoubtedly leads the audience to reimagine the stories being told in the films with vigorous and intensified energy, willing their excitement for the film to succeed, as well as the protagonist to triumph over the antagonist and their ideals. The music also effectively builds up a likeable relationship between the protagonist and the audience and although not directly linked to our style of film, the music being created for an action-adventure film we can use the music effectively to build up a relationship between the characters and the audience in our film opening.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bTpp8PQSog

    

We will use the technique of steadily increasing tension and excitement demonstrated in the film opening to a positive effect within our film opening to hopefully increase excitement amongst audience members and to increase anticipation levels as to what will happen next in our film.

      Jaws- Part of the horror and terror that the audience experience through the viewing of this film is in no doubt aided by the effective use of the music used within it. A fantastic example of this being implemented effectively is during the portions of the film where an attack by the shark is imminent, heightening the audience’s alertness and awareness of forthcoming events in the film through the rise and fall of the tempo. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvCI-gNK_y4

     

 

 

   The Bourne Supremacy- The music throughout the film really aids the film in displaying the codes and conventions of the thriller genre. During the film, The Bourne Supremacy both suspense and excitement are exploited by the soundtrack as they heighten the realism and the threat and peril that the characters are facing, making their plight seem more realistic. Because of this, the music connects the audience emotionally to the film through the increased tension. It is high tempo, fast paced music such as the music displayed in the track ‘The Berlin Foot Chase’ in The Bourne Supremacy that we would aim to capture the spirit and essence of in our own film in order to successfully heighten tension in our own film opening and allow the audience to make more of an emotional connection with the characters contained within our film opening.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsSJAuHDh3w 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Whilst aiming to replicate the tempo and the urgency that is communicated within the piece we would aim to do so on a smaller scale and with our own original flair. However, we will take inspiration from what is displayed in the soundtrack and transfer this originally to our own film opening hopefully with great effect.