Editing

Session 1
the first session didn't go very well not all members of the group participated
people within the group didn't feel like it was necessary for everyone to be there during editing as the felt that too many opinions wouldn't work however I was completely opposed, I felt that it was important for everyones voice to be heard...
we started by viewing all of the footage and sorting through what could and couldn't be used we the arranged the clips into folders depending on the scene they belong to. this was an affective method and made it easy to find what we needed .

Session 2
we then met again on Saturday 28th to continue the edit, after discussing the everyones point of view we came to the decision that all members of the group should be there so everyone eventually attended this session

After this session Abigail decided that it may be useful if she created a different sequence of the film and took the footage away to work on it in London. This was difficult for the group in terms of practicality as some of us had put a lot of work into the editing sequence already. We struggled even more at this point with communication and ensuring that everyone had an equal say. 

the first draft she sent over to us to view was completely different from what we had originally started and therefore from what we had planned. The version deviated away from the themes and the script so much that we asked her to change it so that it follows the structure.

eventually we all agreed on another draft and gave her some constructive criticism/ feedback over the phone or just through text however sometimes it was difficult to express our ideas in this way it would have been a lot easier if we were all there.

An improvement for next time would be that we all stay in one place and that we are all present at every editing session to avoid any confusion or the undermining of anyone's ideas. 

Risk assessment

I conducted the risk assessments for each of the 5 locations, here is a screen shot of a few pages for one location.

In terms of health and safety on the day, there were not real hazards except for when we were filming the last scene we originally had a play to create the smoke by lighting some paper and putting it into a glass bottle to create the smoke. in theory this worked however in practice it didn't create enough smoke for it to be visible. We therefore had to improvise by just burning the end some paper. We ensured that there was some water close by and that the back windows we open for ventilation.

Filming

The day went relatively well however we did have a few problems with organisation as the member of our team who was responsible for the storyboard didn’t arrive until we were in the middle of filming the bedroom scene. This was a huge inconvenience as it forced us to have to improvise and try and work the continuity and sequencing out on the spot. We also needed to have taken the camera out again between our filming day and the last workshop, we had forgotten some of the settings and wasted a lot of time working that out.

Because of the availability of our main actress we only had one day to film and record the voice over. We decided to begin the day with the voice over however due to circumstances that were out of our control, we were unable to record the voice over. After this tedious two-hour session, we decided to abandon the voice over for the moment and begin our filming. We later arranged for the voice over to be recorded in an independent studio in London.

We began with the library scene as there was still a bit of time before we were scheduled to be at Elliot for the busy peak time. The library scene went very well we had already previously decided on the exact location we wanted we just had to be very considerate of the other students studying around us and we needed to ensure that we kept an eye on the time as we had to pack up our equipment and get it to Elliot in time.

Following this was the scene in Elliot where we needed people to be walking past so that in post-production we could speed it up to further illustrate isolation and the loneliness of the character.

Once we had everything that we needed we moved onto the bedroom scene so that the last scene of her in the car park looked like it was in the evening. In these scenes the continuity was absolutely key we had to ensure that when it was time to put theses bits together in post-production that it would flow.

The last scene in the car park should have been straightforward however we faced a few unanticipated challenges although they were nothing we couldn’t overcome. We did have a bystander come over and express her concern for what we were filming and the location as coincidently we were filming at a time when there were quite a few children around. We then decided that we could have to film this section as quickly and efficiently as we possibly could. We were faced with another obstacle in terms of our original plan for the smoke to come through the hosepipe this didn’t work so we ended up lighting some paper and holding it inside of the car to create the smoke. We were award that this could potentially be a health and safety hazard however we did ensure that we had some water  close by to put the paper out.

Final Pre-Production Meeting

Unfortunately only three members of our group attended the last meeting before we were scheduled to film only allowing two days for them to get up to speed with the things that needed to be completed and to finalise the arrangements for the day.

The last part of the logistics we planned by myself, Jamie and Talya. we decided to go back over the script and all my our other notes to ensure that everything would run smoothly on the Friday (filming day).

• Jamie has to confirm that his parents would argue for the voice over
• We need to get confirmations back from all of the talent  (the extras) and to enuse that they knew what costumes to wear 
• Talya said she would be responsible for the props - hose pipe 
• Blank white paper to set the white balance 
• I needed to remind all members of the group that we had agreed to cover the cost of the main actress' petrol
• After reviewing the scrip we decided that for it to flow better we needed to ass a scene which I took care of 
• we needed to create a guide shot list

Production scedule

I decided to create a production schedule to help us with our time management and organisation hopefully well be able to stick to it and get into to a place where we can communicate efficiently about any changes or suggestions anyone may have. 

Call sheet

This is our call Sheet I produced for the filming day, we tried to flow this as best as we could however somethings were out of our control on the actual day however it was useful to have a basic guide.

Casting

Abigail and I were in charge of the casting and we have decided on an actress to play the main character. Her name is Lauren Cato, she is 22 years of age. She recently graduated from the university of West London with a BA in Acting for Stage and media. She is an avid actress and also mu cousin; we thought that she would be great for the part.

Once we had decided we showed a copy of her show reel to the rest of the group, on one had any objects so we went ahead and checked her availability and decided on a date to film.

Here is a copy of her show reel

Script Writing

After the meeting we had where we finalised the Suicide note and dedicated specific sections to specific scenes i made it my responsibility to write the script. As this was something that I had never done before I did look over a few scripts I found online the most useful one was from a BBC television series people just do nothing. Reading really helped me to understand how I could connect the dots between our ideas of the scenes.
(http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/scripts/people-just-do-nothing-ep1-secret-location.pdf)

I tried to visualise exactly what it would look like as I wrote. I found that there were some parts that needed to be added to aid continuity and just generally so that the story would flow. I tried to follow the structure of the script so that when our actors read it they too can easily grasp the concept. One thing that I learnt with writing the script is that its not about me knowing the concept its about leaving clues and action codes throughout the film to project meaning so the audience can follow the story.

Pre-Prodcution: Meeting 4

Today Most of our group met to see where we were and what progress we were making we made a checklist at the beginning of the session for the things that we wanted to achieve by the end. It included the following

Confirming our Locations 

Jamie is the researcher and therefore went out on a location hunt. He returned with a wide range of pictures of possible locations. Because we sort of have an idea of what kind of flashbacks we would like to achieve, it made it a bit easier to decide on locations.

 Complete The Suicide Note

We have now completed the suicide note, we all came together and with all our ideas combined managed to finish it. Richmond suggested that the note should be written by the main character to herself, we all agreed and made the appropriate changes. Now that we have figured out the order of events we can now start to assign specific parts of the note to specific scenes. We started doing this with some flashcards 

Finish the Script

Unfortunately we didn’t get to finish the script I think our to-do list for this meeting was a bit ambitious because of the time we had however I feel that we have made excellent progress i have volunteered to go away and finish it. 

Storyboard

Richmond has volunteered to do the storyboard so once we have finish the script and the stage directions we can decide on the angles, frame lengths and the other technical elements we need to include to make it easier for us when we film. It was also decided at this meeting that him and I would work closely together to ensure that everything works cohesively. 

Risk assessments and other forms

We also have a few forms to fill out about the production however this should be done once everything is finalised.

Shot Types and Camera Movement Workshop

Today we had a workshop which helped us to understand and learn how to execute different shots effectively, it was a very useful session as we received good feedback on the shots we had experimented with, we played with a reflector to see how we can overcome restricted lighting and we were also able to understand the basic principles of positioning the subjects within the frame. 

Locations - Recce

Locations

Jamie is our researcher and therefore went out and scouted our locations. He managed to find a good few places which represent the themes we had previously disused and that would just generally work well with the concept. 

Bedroom
The bedroom will be the main location as it is where the main character writes her suicide note. This is an important location as it will be a direct reflection of jodi.

 Lonely bench outside Tyler court
This location is really nice and peaceful it could act as a place that she goes to reflect upon her boyfriend or just general life. An over the shoulder shot or a long shot would work very well here as it will give the sense that she is alone because she will appear quite small in the frame, again reinforcing some of the themes in the film. 

library 
she is by herself

 Elliot
The palm tree on wood is aesthetically pleasing, while also being a good setting for displaying the lonely element of the character we are trying to convey. This scene will be where the main character is focused centrally and a rush of people walk past her, signifying that she is isolated - this scene will be sped up to further illustrate this.

Food Court

We felt that this scene could either follow a similar concept to that of the elliot scene or could replace the elliot scene depending on which location was busiest and would therefore better capture what we want. 

Hallway
This scene would be used to illustrate that she isn't very social and doesn't have many friends. The idea would be for her to be walking through the hallway and someone bumps past her, knocking her books onto the floor and continuing to walk away.