Weekly Updates (Sharna Mandil)

This week, we uploaded our final draft of our production 'The Unexpected'. We also put it on to Youtube, and onto our Facebook group so we could get feedback for out post-questionnaires. Carl wrote about the fonts we have used throughout our production, and talked about why we used these fonts. Carl also completed the post-questionnaires, and went out and asked people for feedback on our video, which Ian then started the graphs for. Carl also completed the edit decision list and the score notes for our production. We also started our journals on our experience with camera, editor and director. Ian also uploaded the SWOT analysis for our production.

By Sharna Mandil

Edit Decision List (Carl Caperina)

By Carl Caperina

SWOT Analysis (Ian Bukenya)

By Ian Bukenya

Camera Journal

As the camera man I had to make sure all the footage was suitable and had the required shots and angles to reach the maximum marks. Before filming my production I had too my own private research to familiarise myself with the different shots and angles I would like to use. I had to also try and understand the rules to recording a film. Doing that would make sure that I kept to the filming rules e.g. 180 degree rule

When we started to film my job was to insure that the camera was kept in a safe manner and to capture all the footage that we had to record. I didn’t find keeping the camera safe a problem because I had trust worthy responsible people around me. I on the other hand found the recording hard because this skill isn’t something you can perfect in a day. You just have to learn thing as u go along.  Cause of my job u had to be in constant contact with my director. This was the director was in lead of the production, there word was final and I had to listen to it. I and the director had to work together to make sure it was what she wanted and up to standard.  If I could do this role of camera man I would do a better job because this is all a learning process. I have learnt gained a lot of knowledge on what is right and wrong. I would put these skills into practise straight away next time and hopefully gain some more too.

I gave it my all and try my hardest to produce a good quality of filming. There were places I could have done better such as my organization. That would have made everything much easier cause I know what exactly what I’m doing. But In conclusion I think that I done a good job as camera man. I put a hundred percent into it and it showed.

Editors Journal (Carl Caperina)

By Carl Caperina

Directors Journal (Sharna Mandil)

Directors Journal

Date: 20/10/11

20/10/11

Today we began filming of our production ‘The Unexpected’ which is a two-minute opening sequence. We decided to the genre of a Thriller. We all met after school at 3.30pm in A29 with our camera-man Ian Bukenya, director Sharna Mandil and editor Carl Caperina, alongside our actress Holly Newman, who we had to find the day before filming as our original character Yasmin Mandil had to pull out for various reasons, so we had to find someone who fitted the role of what we wanted for our antagonist. 

When we met in A29, I went off with Holly and applied her makeup which included talcum powder to make her look ghostly and dull, and also black eye-shadow around her eyes to make her eye sockets look worn out and scary. We also put her costume on, which was a white long nightdress which had blood on it and was also torn, to look like the typical stereotype of a ghostly girl. 

After we dressed the character, we went to the bathroom and began to film. Ian set up the camera equipment, and Carl got in to position, as he was also acting in the film. Ad the director I told the rest of the crew when to start and stop acting, and I had to ensure I had a good relationship with the cameraman, so Ian could picture what I wanted to final product to look like. As a director I decided what camera shots I felt would work best and what wouldn’t, and Ian controlled the camera and filmed. 

To set up the equipment was a long process and we had to keep moving and positioning the tri-pod as we kept trying out different shots to see what would look best. In our opening sequence, our protagonist Mark (Carl), wakes up from being unconscious on the floor, and sees a ghostly figure above him. To show the viewers this, I decided to use a p.o.v shot so the audience could see what Carl was seeing, so Carl had to hold the camera, so the audience could see what he was seeing which I thought worked very well. We also used many other shots such as long shots so the audience could see the setting we were using, and another key shot we I decided we should use frequently was close up’s, as with this shot the audience could see Carl’s expression and it would keep the audience engrossed with what would happen next. 

During my role as director, I had to constantly be altering the filming as we went along and adding elements into our film that I felt would benefit the production as a whole, so the audience would enjoy it better. I felt that during the filming, I expressed my views of what I wanted as a director. I also felt I was confident and outspoken throughout the filming, as without this I wouldn’t of been able to get my ideas across, and my role as of a director wouldn’t have been fulfilled. We kept having difficulties when filming, as the floor was wet and we had to be very careful, and people kept walking in and out the bathroom which delayed us. It was also very time consuming, as we had so many different shots to do, and had to keep reapplying makeup. So we learnt how to manage our time, we also developed a more close relationship as we worked as team, and kept giving each other ideas of what would look good in our film.

By Sharna Mandil

Final Production on Facebook and Twitter

We posted our final production on to two main social networking websites, to gather feedback for our final production.

By Sharna Mandil