Below is a video I uploaded to Vimeo from iMovie. It is some initial footage I did with Heidi playing the role of Clare. The purpose of this filming was to give her some practise with the role and to see how she felt playing it. Overall, this small amount of footage fits together well and I think it went really well. There are some black outs during it where some footage is missing, but as this was only test footage it isn't really too much of a problem.
Reflective Comment:
This test footage was very useful as it gave both me and Heidi some practise with our roles. For me, it allowed me time to get used to the phone I am filming with and also the tripod positioning in my room. For Heidi, it gave her some practise with acting and gave me confidence that she can perform as the character of Clare well. Full filming will be completed soon, with a date soon to be set.
Tuesday 20 December 2016
Tuesday 13 December 2016
My Characters
As the filming phase of my production gets closer, I've decided to do a post on who will play the role of my characters, and why I've decided to use them.
Heidi Cooke as Clare (main character):
Heidi is playing the main role of Clare. Although Clare is the main character, throughout the film she does not actually say too much, because most of her conversations are had online and her quietness helps build her character. Because of this, the role of this part doesn't represent too much of a challenge as the main aspects relate to staying serious throughout rather than having long conversations with people. Heidi agreed to play this character and we plan to do some test footage soon to make sure she is capable of playing Clare.
Mandy Coe (my mum) as Clare's Mum:
My Mum is playing the role of Clare's Mum. To make this character as realistic as possible, I had to use someone of a suitable age. Using one of my friends would have worked but would not have made much sense as they wouldn't look old enough to act as Clare's Mum. Because of this, I spoke to Mum about the role and she agreed to take on the character. More speech is involved with Clare's Mum's role, so like with Heidi I plan to do some test footage to give my Mum practise and mainly to ensure she is capable of becoming this character the way I need her to.
Me as Tom/Murderer:
Tom's character is not very prevalent throughout my film. He is seen once in his bedroom with a hood covering his face and on his laptop talking to Clare. He is also seen at the end running over to Clare's dead body. Because of his little prevalence, I didn't see the point in finding someone to cast as him, due to the fact they would only be needed for very small amounts of filming. I've decided to act as this role, and to also play the murderer who stabs Clare in the alley. During the scenes I'm in, I'm going to use members of my family to help operate the tripod and camera in the correct way to ensure that the scene still works well even without me in control of the camera.
Reflective Comment:
This post moves me closer to my filming phase now I have came to a decision on who will be my actors and why. I think that I cast the right people for these roles, and even if I didn't the test footage I plan to do will help me understand whether or not I need to consider re-casting at all. Also, if my role as Tom and the murderer does not work I have people on standby who can step in if needed. I think this post was done well with the right amount of detail as to why these people are playing the roles in my production. To improve, I could have possibly included some test footage within this post but I plan to do a separate one containing this.
Heidi Cooke as Clare (main character):
Heidi is playing the main role of Clare. Although Clare is the main character, throughout the film she does not actually say too much, because most of her conversations are had online and her quietness helps build her character. Because of this, the role of this part doesn't represent too much of a challenge as the main aspects relate to staying serious throughout rather than having long conversations with people. Heidi agreed to play this character and we plan to do some test footage soon to make sure she is capable of playing Clare.
Mandy Coe (my mum) as Clare's Mum:
My Mum is playing the role of Clare's Mum. To make this character as realistic as possible, I had to use someone of a suitable age. Using one of my friends would have worked but would not have made much sense as they wouldn't look old enough to act as Clare's Mum. Because of this, I spoke to Mum about the role and she agreed to take on the character. More speech is involved with Clare's Mum's role, so like with Heidi I plan to do some test footage to give my Mum practise and mainly to ensure she is capable of becoming this character the way I need her to.
Me as Tom/Murderer:
Tom's character is not very prevalent throughout my film. He is seen once in his bedroom with a hood covering his face and on his laptop talking to Clare. He is also seen at the end running over to Clare's dead body. Because of his little prevalence, I didn't see the point in finding someone to cast as him, due to the fact they would only be needed for very small amounts of filming. I've decided to act as this role, and to also play the murderer who stabs Clare in the alley. During the scenes I'm in, I'm going to use members of my family to help operate the tripod and camera in the correct way to ensure that the scene still works well even without me in control of the camera.
Reflective Comment:
This post moves me closer to my filming phase now I have came to a decision on who will be my actors and why. I think that I cast the right people for these roles, and even if I didn't the test footage I plan to do will help me understand whether or not I need to consider re-casting at all. Also, if my role as Tom and the murderer does not work I have people on standby who can step in if needed. I think this post was done well with the right amount of detail as to why these people are playing the roles in my production. To improve, I could have possibly included some test footage within this post but I plan to do a separate one containing this.
Monday 12 December 2016
Lighting Experiments
My bedroom is where most of my production will be filmed, so I decided to experiment with some lighting. I only have one lamp that I can use to do this, so this is the key light in terms of three point lighting. I couldn't change the brightness of this light, so instead I changed the angle at which it points into the scene. Below, you can see a slide share with three different pictures with the lamp at three different angles. In my production, my main character will be laying on the bed on the laptop.
The first picture in this slide share shows the lamp shining onto the scene in full view, lighting up pretty much everything. Considering the theme of my film, this type of lighting is not suitable as it doesn't create much of a dark sinister atmosphere. The second picture is more darker which looks better, but the third is the lighting I've decided to go with. To create this, I turned the light of the lamp so it was facing more of the wall, meaning that a small glimpse shines only on where my actress will lay. Because she will be on the bed, no visible shadows are created so I do not need a fill light. The darkness in her room can also relate to pathetic fallacy to represent her mood and help create the scene.
Reflective Comment:
The experiment was very good and needed in preparation for my filming. Experimenting with lighting at different angels and with different levels of brightness has helped me to create and visualise how this scene will unfold. I plan to begin filming soon and create this scene in this lighting. Test footage is planned to best posted soon to see how this goes.
The first picture in this slide share shows the lamp shining onto the scene in full view, lighting up pretty much everything. Considering the theme of my film, this type of lighting is not suitable as it doesn't create much of a dark sinister atmosphere. The second picture is more darker which looks better, but the third is the lighting I've decided to go with. To create this, I turned the light of the lamp so it was facing more of the wall, meaning that a small glimpse shines only on where my actress will lay. Because she will be on the bed, no visible shadows are created so I do not need a fill light. The darkness in her room can also relate to pathetic fallacy to represent her mood and help create the scene.
Reflective Comment:
The experiment was very good and needed in preparation for my filming. Experimenting with lighting at different angels and with different levels of brightness has helped me to create and visualise how this scene will unfold. I plan to begin filming soon and create this scene in this lighting. Test footage is planned to best posted soon to see how this goes.
Friday 9 December 2016
Lighting Techniques
For the filming of my piece, I must consider how I will utilise the lighting to help change the look of my different scenes. To think about this, I've started to look at the term 'three point lighting'. I used a website called 'media college' to do this, which provided me with the pictures below and helped me to understand the term. The link can be found by clicking here.
Three point lighting:
This is a standard method that involves three different points of lighting: key light, fill light, and back light.
Above is the the key light and the main light. It usually has the most influence on the look of the scene, and is placed to one side of the camera to so that one side is well lit and the on the other side a shadow is created. For my filming, it is likely that I will use at minimum a key light to help create shadows in some places and to create actual light in others. I am planning to experiment with this soon.
This light is known as the fill light, and is placed opposite the key light to fill any shadows that it creates. This light is not always needed if the shadows that are created by the key light are wanted. This light is not usually very bright as its main purpose is to fill shadows. For my filming process, I doubt I will use a fill light, but if when I'm experimenting I find that a key light creates unnecessary shadows then I may consider using a fill light to stop this.
The final light from the three point lighting is the back light. As you can see from the picture, this light behind the other two and is not used to provide a direct light. Instead, its purpose is to provide definition and subtle highlights around a characters outlines. This can help separate the character from the background to create more of a three dimensional look. For my piece, I do no think this back light will be needed, however when I begin experimenting I may see if it creates more of an effect on my characters.
Reflective Comment:
This piece of research was very useful and needed with the filming process coming up. I think that these types of lighting will be used by myself when I'm setting up a scene ready for filming. I think I covered each area of the three point lighting well and considered if they would be useful for me. To improve this task I could have included some pictures of my scenes with the experimentation of these lighting techniques, but I do plan to do that some time in the future.
Three point lighting:
This is a standard method that involves three different points of lighting: key light, fill light, and back light.
Above is the the key light and the main light. It usually has the most influence on the look of the scene, and is placed to one side of the camera to so that one side is well lit and the on the other side a shadow is created. For my filming, it is likely that I will use at minimum a key light to help create shadows in some places and to create actual light in others. I am planning to experiment with this soon.
This light is known as the fill light, and is placed opposite the key light to fill any shadows that it creates. This light is not always needed if the shadows that are created by the key light are wanted. This light is not usually very bright as its main purpose is to fill shadows. For my filming process, I doubt I will use a fill light, but if when I'm experimenting I find that a key light creates unnecessary shadows then I may consider using a fill light to stop this.
The final light from the three point lighting is the back light. As you can see from the picture, this light behind the other two and is not used to provide a direct light. Instead, its purpose is to provide definition and subtle highlights around a characters outlines. This can help separate the character from the background to create more of a three dimensional look. For my piece, I do no think this back light will be needed, however when I begin experimenting I may see if it creates more of an effect on my characters.
Reflective Comment:
This piece of research was very useful and needed with the filming process coming up. I think that these types of lighting will be used by myself when I'm setting up a scene ready for filming. I think I covered each area of the three point lighting well and considered if they would be useful for me. To improve this task I could have included some pictures of my scenes with the experimentation of these lighting techniques, but I do plan to do that some time in the future.
Thursday 1 December 2016
Risk Assessment
I am planning to film soon, and so I've decided to carry out a risk assessment on any possible hazards:
Reflective Comment:
This post was something that I needed to do before I can actually get around to filming, and although there aren't many hazards, it was still very needed. As you can see, I covered all of the main things I could think off. Most of my production is filmed inside my house, so the risks are very low, and the small amount of filming I do outside still doesn't present much of a risk.
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