Bad News!

Hey Guys,

Unfortunately, after spending the ENTIRE Friday of the half term filming our project, being extraordinarily tired, re-arranging a HUGE amount of furniture, and completing the filming, our SD card was corrupted and so all our filming, as well as the other media studies group's footage filmed using the same camera and SD. It was a real bummer and I was disappointed because we'd spent lots of time on it and the whole day just seemed like a waste.

However, we can't do much about it and so I chose to look at the benefits of the situation.

Carolina had a doctors appointment on Friday that started at 1:00pm (BANG in the middle of our filming) and, as we'd spent the first two hours setting the scene and moving furniture, she'd only been there for the small dog scenes and didn't get a chance to film. Now that we are re-filming, she can film parts of the opening sequence herself. 

The towel scenes shot in our initial filming made me feel a little uncomfortable so we decided, before we even found out that we couldn't use the previous footage, that we would be refilming the bathroom scene with me in a patterned dressing gown instead. Now it is less of an inconvenience to re-film those parts.

We'd also tried to film the entire opening sequence in one day. As it was our first run-through, it took a lot longer than expected, and I think, in hindsight, we'd underestimated how much time it would take us. We began to lose the light (I never understood when film crews used that phrase, but when your working with one light at 4:00pm in the winter, I now get what they meant), so a lot of our scenes were darker than we wanted, particularly the final scene when she leaves the house.

This didn't work as we were trying to create a peppy, positive atmosphere in our film and the opening sequence is set during in the morning. It would't exactly add up if half of the scene was shot in the dark and she left the house in light looking similar to the evening.

By 4:00 we were rushing to get everything done as well, and so we forgot elements we wanted to add in e.g. Naomi's hair is straight, she checks www.Facebook.com and she piles a load of comdoms into her bag before she leaves. By filming later on, we wouldn't have to rush and we'd have more time to check our schedule and make sure we'd included all we wanted, as well as review the footage.

Now that we are re-filming, which although is a pain, we can reshoot and include all these things we forgot and film our footage at the standard we wanted, rather than one we had to settle for. I'm grateful in some ways, and although I am seriously dreading re-filming, I'm pleased that we have the chance to tweak everything into perfection and I'm optimistic that now we've done it once before, filming will be a lot quicker this time *fingers crossed*

Pheebs, OUT!!! ;)

Friday Filming!

Hey All!

Having decided Friday 22nd February was the day to complete all our filming, we arranged for Carolina, and her dog Ollie, Sam and myself to meet at my house at 10:00am sharp! We wanted to get an early start to make as much use of the time as possible, and as our film had a bright and chirpy mood, the atmosphere and lighting in the opening two minutes had to reflect that, hence, we need sunshine. Unfortunately, we do live in England and suffer from poor weather so our lighting wasn't as bright as we'd have liked. However, we had a back-up screen and lights from the Media Studies department so I was fairly confident we would be able to generate the image and tone we desired for our genre.

Armed with our props, we bundled into our room with a friend of ours, Melisa, who'd offer to come and give us a hand moving stuff around and holding the odd screen here or there. We began with clearing out my room, removing pillows and draws to make the room more spacious. I'm a neat freak and it was akin to torture for me. We then rearranged specific areas of the room we were shooting in.

 

We cleared my desk and turned it into a make-up table, adding a mirror, beauty products and a bunch of photos with blue-tack to the scene. We also created the stacks of Vogue magazines and books on the bookshelf for the panning shots, as well as adjusted and added little details to the bedroom e.g. iPod speakers and 'Glow job' cream. By the time we'd completed the 'look' of the set, we'd realised how much we'd severly underestimated timings. We'd had to enroll the help of Vimmi, Sam's mum who generously went back and forth from Sam's house to mine, collecting anything we'd forgotten on the way over. All in all, we were finished by 12:00, two hours in!

 

 

Once we'd finished cleaning the room, and had a spot of lunch, it was time to get filming. I'd changed into my outfit and staggering about in platform stilettos to the best of my ability, trying not to die. Carolina had a doctors appointment at 1:00pm, and so we prioritised the dog scenes with Ollie first, as he would have to leave with Carolina. Working with animals is flaming hard-work, which we soon realised as we spent the following hour arranging Ollie and trying to encourage him with a range of treats to roll-over, and shimmy as much as possible. After completing filming, Carolina had to leave and Sam, Melisa and I spent the next 5 hours filming.

 

Having written a thorough script and storyboard, we found filming was a lot easier as we had a step-be-step guide of how and what to film, particularly as the storyboard included camera angles and shots. Time taken was cut down and our organisation was better as a result.

 

We also had trouble with the HUGE lights and tripod we had to manouver in and out of small spaces. I've apparently got the biggest room in my house but you wouldn't believe it if you'd seen as struggling that day. The bathroom was a particular problem however, with a lot of sucking-in, slipping in and out of crevices and crouching to hold the lights steady, we managed to get some reasonable shots. The light, in some cases, was very bright and white, almost clinical and we had to use the gold, reflective screen a number of times in order to dull in down and give the image a more natural, morning-glow look.

 

By the end of the day we were all knackered, and after returning the room to its former state, we sat down and plugged the SD card into my laptop. We tried to access the footage however, only a couple of clips were available to watch, and we got slightly panicked, assuming the problem was our computer and that as soon as we downloaded the footage onto the Apple Macs at school, it'd all be fine. Bidding Sam and Mel goodbye, I packed the rest of the film equipment away and anticipated Monday, when we'd get to start editing!

 

Pheebs OUT! ;)

Admin

'Sup!

The first task we had to take care of was deciding when and where we were going to film our opening sequence. With my bedroom chosen as the location, and tester shots completed, Sir was encouraging us to film during February half term, due to needing roughly a day or two to complete filming. The half term, however, is a very busy week for me: I'm already in the school play, Annie Get Your Gun, which is holding rehearsals in the half term and am going away for the weekend to see my grandparents. If we take into account time needed to complete homework as well, the only date left free was Friday, 22nd February. We were however confident we could complete filming in one day and as a result, booked the camera, screens, tripod and lights for that day.

 

Pheebs, OUT! ;)