Filming ! - Amira Duale

Videoing 

My role as the camera person was to film the entire sequence this meant that i had to be able to have a hands on role in getting the sequence to my liking and as well as my team members. This meant i had to also direct some parts of the filming as well as Ash and see what he'd prefer and what actually looked good on the camera that i was looking through.


Process 

At the beginning of the process of filming I used the larger camera this however changed during the filming as we saw it be very heavy and carrying it everywhere this was impossible to do and it would waste our time. However this camera was very precise in capturing the characters and making it more realistic and professional the editors of the opening sequel was Ash and Simona and they found editing with this camera very interesting because it was very professional looking and looked good.

 Switching camera's

After Switching the cameras i have realised it was very good as an hand-he;d because it was very light and we didn't have to worry about it as much as the other one this was very good for me since i would be the one that would be carrying it everywhere. We also used tripods throughout the filming because we found it to be more steady than the actual camera it self, using it without a tripod was very convenient  for us too because we wanted to get that realistic look such as the movies Kiddulthood and Adulthood.


Filming the sequel i found that it was interesting and very rewarding to the sequel and doing the right things such as the different shots together would be very easy for our editors. The camera that was used throughout the movie was a  Legria fs200 -

By Amira Duale

Editing the Film

After all the filming was done we had the hard job of editing.
We  ended up with nearly an hour of film which we had to reduce to below 2 minute 30.

In the first sessions of editing we focused on cutting the film down to about 2 minute. We had to make sure it made sense for the audience too though. The most important thing was to tell the story, and then once this was done we could add the creative shots and titles.

We learnt that we could cut shots to make it have meaning.
For example we cut between the shot of Simona's and Ozzy's eyes to make it look like they looked at each other and this also this shows some romantic chemistry between the two characters.









Editing the painting of Simona;

The painting of simona had to be from Ozzys point of view since he is painting her in class. This was hard to do in the time of filming so the painting had to be done prior filming.

To make the painting as accurate we had to film the whole of that scene excluding the shot of the painting.
I then had to freeze frame the shot of Simona, from Ozzy's point of view, and then went on to then paint it from that freeze frame. If i had painted Simona before actually shooting her reaction, it may have differed from the scene behind her and what she may have been wearing. We had to film the shot of the canvas with the painting on it and edit it in. 

Editing with the music;

We needed a song that linked to our genre, and music that the main character Ozzy would listen to. At first the music is non digetic as it can be heard at the very beginning, as you see the titles come up (linking to the normal conventions of real films). Once we are introduced to Ozzy, we don't see he has headphones until half way through the titles. The music (after the bell can be heard) then stops, showing he is actually listening to the music on his phone. the music then becomes digetic as both the audience and the character can hear the song. The song fades to a low volume until you see him put the headphones back in as he's walking down the corridor  The song then heightens, until he walks away from Simona and Amira, where their conversation starts and he is out of the shot. The music once again heightens in volume when he approaches Dara. 

We had to do this editing on 'Garage Band'. This allowed us to increase and decrease sounds at appropriate times, as well as keeping the original atmospheric track and verbal language. I had to search for this song on a website called 'Free Play'. This was avoid any copy right issues. We used garage band to search for the appropriate bell sound, which sounded realistic. This was copy right free as it already existed on garage band as a means for sound effects.

 During the conversation with Amira and Simona i had to make sure the sound of song was decreased so you can hear both characters. We attempted to film the audio of the conversation and then filmed them, and used it as a voice over. This was unsuccessful as the sound didn't seem natural ideal. You could tell it was a voice over. I had to use the actual audio from the conversation which was fine and we realised it was ok to use. 

By Ash Khan

Problems We Encountered..

The Classroom Scene:

When filming the classroom scene we realised there was not enough extras to make it look like a real , full, busy classroom. We tackled this by carefully framing the shots.

The Hallway Scene:

We needed extras for the hallway scene. Luckily some girls walked by and we filmed them in the background as we acted in the foreground. After we asked them for them for their consent and they agreed.

The Drug Deal Scene:
Our first choice extra was Ahmed but we could not get into contact with him so we had to call our back up extra Dara. He came and filming was successful.

By Ash Khan

Test Shooting.

A few issues...




Created By Ash Khan

First day of filming

‘Always be prepared for the worse in order to succeed’. This is one of the key factors I have learnt in the process of making our movie opening. Not everything went after our plan on the first day of filming. We filmed some footage, but at the end we didn’t find it as useful and ended up not having it in our final piece. This is because of the setting. We found the setting not very classroom like on that day. So we booked a new appointment for another day, when the classroom would be more crowded with people, as we only had two extras available on that day. This made us realise, that not everything is predictable, as we thought that the classroom will be more crowded with people on that day. But that was our instinct, so we realised that it is all about making sure and checking not fallowing your instincts. We found the first day very helpful for us, as we learnt our lesson and had a chance to see what went well and what went wrong in order to succeed on the next day of filming. We also had a chance to realise, that the camera that we were using was too complicated, so we changed our minds up and used a different camera on the next day.  

Second day of filming

‘180 degrees rule’. We are all ready and compared for filming the scenes in the classroom.  Mis-en-scene always gives some extra information on the characters to the audience, so we had to wear the right clothes in order to give the right idea of our characters. We had all of our props ready and we were ready to film. Everything went after our plan and we had now filmed all the scenes that we needed in the classroom.

Third day 

‘Check the weather news’. We came across a slight and unexpected problem. It started to rain outside. The weather wasn’t suitable for our film, so we couldn’t film that day. Also because of safety matters, as the actors and extras could fall because of weather, so we didn’t want that to happen, as the actors were very important. Also we had no equipment to cover the camera with, so we didn’t want the equipment to be damaged as well. As weather is unpredictable, we made sure that we also checked the weather news for the next day of filming.

Fourth day 

‘Planning is the key factor’. We made sure that the weather is suitable outside for our scenes outside. We made sure, that all the extras that were needed were in, by having a call sheet with their number on it. Weather turned out to be good for our film, the actors needed turned up and we filmed all the scenes outside. The problem with this was that it was freezing cold outside, as we spent few hours filming. We were meant to provide the crew with some food and warm drinks, but we didn’t plan it too well, so the actors, extras and other crew members were freezing and hungry.

  ‘Have a test shoot and you will see what’s missing’. When we uploaded the footage on the computer and started to edit, we straight away knew what was missing and what extra key things needed to be film in order to give the right representation as well as to make it look like a movie opening.                   

Day five

 We had decided to re film few scenes, as we wasn’t satisfied with the ones we already had, so we filmed in different locations in order to have a wider choice of shots to use. On day five, we also filmed few shots of our location as we didn’t really have a lot of shots to use for introducing our location. We contacted our very important extra to come in on that day, we filmed and the footage was exactly what we wanted and needed. We also had a shot where we plaid with the focus, which we found very useful at the end.

Day six

  This happened spontaneously, as we didn’t plan to film anything on that day, but we decided to film some shots of the atmosphere and classrooms for the diegetic sound, that we could use for our movie opening.

‘Great successes’. We had all of our footage that was needed and we were on process of editing. We came across few mistakes and problems, but we seemed to fix them. And next time we would be more prepared and ready. It was a very good experience and it helped us to learn a lot and understand the process of movie making much more.

By: Simona Larka 9575