Location Scouting.

Finding the right location for filming our preliminary task, wasn't as difficult as I first anticipated. At first, I thought that finding an empty room, which we could use whenever would be difficult, however we managed to use the English store room without any issues. 

All of our filming takes place in only 4 different locations: the English store room, the English corridor, outside the English store room and the expressive arts corridor. The majority of our clip takes place in the store room. As it was lesson time when we were filming, the corridors were empty the majority of the time, therefore, making it easier to film without interruptions.

English Store Room.



















Outside the English store room.


















Expressive arts corridor. 





















English Corridor. 

Some Things Are Not Going As Planned.

Currently, my group and I are in the midst of filming our preliminary task. However, some things aren't going as smoothly as we first anticipated. 

Things were running smoothly, such as wearing certain clothes on certain days, to ensure our continuity during the clip is perfect, and getting as much of our filming done as we could to ensure we have enough time to edit, etc. However, this all changed at the beginning of this week, when my teacher was on a school trip (how inconsiderate!). 

On Monday, everyone in my group had worn the appropriate clothing, in order for us to carry on filming. We were all set to begin filming, when we had no keys to the cupboard the camera's were in! Even though we sent our other teacher on a wild-goose hunt in order to find the keys, there was no luck. This meant we lost an hour worth of filming, and couldn't edit as our footage was still on the camera. With nothing else to do, we had to blog!

Today, was possibly even worse! We dedicated today's lesson, purely for editing (mainly because everyone forgot to wear the correct clothes), however when went to get the footage off the camera from out previous lesson, we discovered it was no longer on there! We decided, that someone had either deleted out footage or the SD cards had been swapped. Going though every single SD card would take way too long, and would be a waste of a lesson and everyone else's time. This meant, we were to film our footage again, however luckily we had already saved some on to the computer. This meant, we were able to edit a small amount of footage, and therefore the lesson wasn't a complete waste of time. 

In the future, we've decided to save our footage to the computer immediately, in order to avoid this awkwardness.   

Utopia-Post Production.

The Sci-Fi series Utopia, is based around a mismatched group of people who discover a global conspiracy within a comic book. 

The TV show is widely known for it's extreme use in colour. Director Marc Munden uses the Technicolour palette of 1950s Hollywood, in order to replicate the graphic novel's bold aesthetic. Munden says "Normally the way you'd colour a piece of cinematography is by constructing it with greens, blues and reds. The three-strip Technicolour process we use is comprised of the opposite colours-yellows, cyan, magentas" 

During post-production, Munden and colourist Aidan Farrell carefully colour-correct each shot in order to give the shot a comic book effect. "We choose certain colours like yellow and turquoise and paint them into shots afterwards. The skies that we shot weren't always blue, they were mostly grey British skies. The same goes for making the grass greener, eyes brighter, or turning a blue van yellow" says Munden.

From this article, posted on wired.co.uk, I have learnt, that during post-production, almost everything can be manipulated into something that it isn't. Post-producton can be used to make something look like it's something almost completely different coloured, and therefore things such as the weather or time of year doesn't effect the production of the filming as it can be edited later on. 

In the lead up to filming my opening to a thriller later in the year, I can begin to think about the sorts of things which effect production, and what can be edited/changed during the post-production. For example, I may not have to worry about the fact that when i'm filming it may be blue skies, despite the fact in a thriller, stereo-typically in a thriller the skies would be grey and dull, because we can edit this into the scene, during post-production. 

I have found out, that a lot of things which may hold me back when I come to filming, such as the colour of someone's clothes or the type/time of day, can be altered and almost fixed later on in the process, therefore making it easier to get the effect I want. 

This image is a perfect representation of the sorts of things which can be done during post-production. This shows us that an image which could be just considered dull and not that interesting, can then be changed into something which has much more depth to it, and the final image will fit the theme of the scene much more appropriately. 

Preliminary Task- Storyboard and Planning

For the planning of our preliminary task, we were asked to create a storyboard of our short clip, in the sequence of shots were going to take place. This is to help the rest of my group and I to understand the order in which things are going to take place, in order to avoid confusion. We have been told, that our storyboard must follow the main idea of our story, however if we film something slightly different, it won't matter. 

Unfortunately, nobody in our group is amazing at drawing, however that doesn't matter, as it still gave us the general idea of what shot is going to be used at what point, and how the clip is going to flow. Our storyboard helps give us the sense of continuity and direction, as it helps us understand what shot we need to achieve next. 

Preliminary Brief: Continuity Task

For our preliminary task, we have been asked to film a short clip, in which we must include certain continuity techniques. The short clip must include, a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom she then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue. The clip must include; match on action, the 180 degree rule, and an example of shot/reverse shot.

For this task, I am working with, D'arby, Lois and Carmel. We have all decided it would be best to make this clip creepy and tense, in order to prepare ourselves for our final task of making an opening to a thriller.

Match on Action: This refers to film editing and video editing techniques, where the editor cuts from one shot to another, whilst still matching the action in the first shot. Even though the two shots may have been filmed with a significant period of time in between, it gives the effect of a continuous flow of time. 

180 Degree Rule: When filming a clip with two characters in, they should always have the same left/right relationship to one and other. This is to avoid the sense of disorientation and to help the audience with spacial awareness. The camera must always stay on one side of the imaginary line, in order for this shot to work. 

Shot/ Reverse Shot: This is a film continuity technique, where one character is shown to be looking at the other character, often when having a conversation, then the shot cuts back to the other character. This shot is often used to show the reaction of each of the characters individually.