Extra Filming

After watching back my two drafts and talking to some fellow students about it, we've all arrived at the conclusion that my film is missing some kind of twist toward the end, and as a whole it could be seen as quite predictable. Because of this, I've decided that the film would benefit more from an extra scene that created some kind of twist for the audience to think about. My plan was to do that piece of extra filming with my actress, Heidi, tonight, but due to circumstances beyond my control this can no longer happen. The scene we were going to film involved Tom coming to find Clare's dead body, and therefore meaning she had been killed by someone else other than Tom which would confuse the audience. Instead, I am going to shoot a quick scene of Clare's laptop sitting on her bed receiving constant messages from Tom telling her not to leave and that he couldn't make it. This will then make an audience wonder whether or not that was actually Tom who killed Clare and add a twist at the end of my production.
By changing the end of my film slightly, it means that the first draft I did for my magazine review no longer works because in the review I've mentioned how the film is quite predictable with the ending. Because of this, I now plan to compose a second draft for my magazine review that brings in this new scene.

Reflective Comment:
I think that adding this scene into my film will help boost it up in terms with the grade due to the development of the plot. Although I would like to film Heidi (Clare) down the alleyway again, this is not possible right now so I will use the messages coming through on the laptop as a substitute for this.

Plan For Final Week

Next week is the final week of sixth form before our half term break of a week, meaning that I must meet some deadlines with my coursework during this half term break. The date for everything to be done is the 20th February.
The trail I have on my MacBook for Final Cut Pro expires in 13 days, meaning that completing all of the editing of my film is my first and main focus in order to export it completely done before the trail ends. I have one final scene to film which will be done either tomorrow or Sunday, giving me the whole of next week to put it together and begin thinking about and creating music.
I have already made good progress with the ancillary task of a film poster, completing a few drafts already and being very close to posting a final completed task. Because of this, not much focus needs to be set on this task as good progress has been made.
For the other ancillary task of the film magazine review, little progress has been made and so this along with finishing the main task of the film are my main tasks for next week. I need to compose a draft of the text for the review, as this is the main focus for the task. Obviously the design and look of the review is important and must be considered, but I am more focused on ensuring that the text within the review matches conventions.

Filming/Editing Progress

Last Monday and Tuesday night I began my filming process which went really well despite some problems.
On the Monday, we spent several hours filming the scenes that take place inside my house. This involved Clare (Heidi) in her room, and Clare's Mum coming up to shouting. All of these scenes went really well, but were very time consuming as I had to film in a variety of different angles. However, as I have now began to put the clips together and edit them, filming with a variety of different angles has proven worth it.
On the Tuesday, me and Heidi went out of the house and down the alleyway to complete the filming that needed to be done outside. Despite the cold weather, we successfully did this, setting up the tripod in specific ways so that me and Heidi could both be in the scene at the same time.
My plan now is to continue editing the scenes I have until they are all put together well, and then this weekend (Sunday 29th January) continue to film the scenes I still need to do. I have over 4 minutes of footage meaning that it is all nearly done. The remaining scenes I need to do involve an additional one of Clare in her room and leaving the house, as well as Clare's Mum standing over a grave stone to represent her grief of Clare's death.

Reflective Comment:
This post is simply an update on what is happening because I have been completely focused on filming and editing recently and so haven't done any new posts.

Reflective Blog Entry (Christmas Break)

Over our Christmas break from sixth form I got a lot done with my course. My main goal was to tidy up my blog as much as possible, adding reflective comments to every post to ensure that when it comes to my evaluation I can refer back to the things I wrote about each post. I achieved this goal and now each of my posts includes a comment reflecting on what makes the post I did good and what can be done to improve it. In terms of filming, I wasn't too sure whether or not I was going to be able to find the time to complete it all. As it was, I didn't manage to find a day which suited my actors and me so we were not able to get much done. However, I did manage to get some test footage done with my main character, Heidi, which was very useful for both of us. As of now, I am completely ready to film with all of my actors decided, costumes discussed and ready, and locations sorted. My plan and goal is to begin the final filming process this Sunday (15th January), and finish it off the next night (Monday 16th). If I can achieve this it will mean that I can focus on editing and putting everything together, as well as beginning to put together my ancillary tasks.

Reflective Blog Entry

Last week went well and I made a lot of progress, however there are some things that didn't go so well. The update I posted on my film plot was a good thing to get done as it meant I now have a full understanding of what will happen in my film. It meant I could move on and begin a storyboard that didn't go so well. I did it was a lack of detail and description so it is just a very very rough version of a storyboard. I'm not going to remove it from my blog as it is good to look back on and compare when I eventually get my proper storyboard done. As you can see from the reflective comment on my storyboard, I'm going to improve it greatly by making a new one with actual locations and characters and camera angles.
For this week, I'm planning on improving some of the secondary research I've done and perhaps doing some more in greater depth. After that, I'm going to begin developing some characters for my film.

Reflective Blog Entry

This week has been very successful for me and I've managed to get quite a bit done. I looked at narrative theories and considered how they could relate to my film, and also created a questionnaire which allowed me to carry out some primary research and get some responses from people about the production of my film. For the next week I'm going to develop my plot further and come to a complete decision and what will happen and create a blog post about this. I then want to go further with this and attempt to create a storyboard as best I can that shows what will happen in my film.

Reflective Blog Entry

This week has gone fairly well and I've managed to carry out some secondary research for the audience of my film. However, I am not where I want to be, and so next week I will make sure I do some primary research on audiences as well as looking at possible narrative theories to help me develop the plot of my film further and to be more confident with the ideas that I am doing. I would also like to start to consider my ancillary products and look at the conventions I must follow in detail.

Reflective Blog Entry

This is my reflection on my first week back at sixth form and how my ideas have progressed. I will do one of these reflections at the end of every week to analyse what still needs to be done or anything that needs improving on.
I am happy with how the first week back has gone as I've completed the two presentation tasks that were set. They were the analysis of media artefacts and a pitch to the class on my ideas for this year. I think that I did both of these tasks very well and included the right amount of detail with both presentation. My goal for next week is to fully decide on the plot of my film, as well as start to do some research into the target audience I will be aiming my film at with some primary and secondary data.