Lighting tutorial

None of us have used lightning so we ask for a tutorial from our technician as from our test shoot we noticed how badly we needed them to stop the images from looking grainy.

Our technician demonstrating using Francis as focus of lightening

Nico adjusting the light positioning

Francis adjusting lightening density

Natasha adjusting volume of light projected 

Shoot Permission Form

This is our shoot organisation form which everyone had to sign, including our teachers, to make sure our arrangements were clear and that we would all stick to them.

Real shoot organisation sheets

As one of the main problems in our test shoot was the lack of props. Here we have written up a comprehensive props list with who is getting what. Secondly we have written up a list of things we ned to do better this time around to make sure the shoot goes smoothly as well as the changes we intend to make.

Teachers Improvements

After our test shoot we showed our teachers our rough cut and we recieved feed back which we took o to make sure our real production is successful.

These are the notes we made when running through the rough edit with Mrs Blackborrow, Mrs Dymioti and Chris, our technician.
Many points and issues came up. The main ones were:

• Changing the opening shots so it did not include as many shots of knives as this is a genre convention of horror, not action/thriller. Focus more instead on items like cigars and whiskey to create the uneasy image we are going for.
• Making it look like the action is continuing beneath the titles.
• Lingering the shot where he picks up his briefcase and replacing the match on action of the door with a new title.
• Including more camera movement.
• Making the gun scene less static by shooting from more angles.
• Get rid of jumps
• Use more interesting framing in the gun scene to draw in audience
• Include shots such as CU of money in briefcase (match on action), assasin picking up briefcase and possibly her taking off her gloves
• Using better lighting to get rid of the grainy image.
• Make things faster-faster shots and possibly a cut down script.
• Use make up and effects for the gunshot.
• Use better props for better mise-en-scene e.g briefcase, whiskey glass, whiskey bottle.
• Making the gun scene a lot more dramatic. Possible ways we discussed were non-digetic sound effects, zoom in to the guys face see a change of expression then zoom out to see the gun, or even a fade to black of the guy in his relaxed state with a sudden jolt back to the image as the assasin appears.

Shoot Logistics

Our scheduled test shoot was to be on 5/2/2012; however it snowed heavily the night before and Nico and Natasha wasn't able to get to potteres bar where the film location was to be (francis house) as natasha  was taking public transport and it is quite a distance from her house and the trains were not working, also Nico's mum could not drive him on the icy roads specially since Potters bar is on the out skirts of london; there for still having icy roads.

Our shoot that was meant to be in Hollywood, while we was on our media trip, also failed as we were not allowed to shoot in the location. However it was fine we had a back-up of either shooting back in London next to the enfield civic centre or cut out the scene. As having two locations would be difficult and the first scene doesn't necessarily need that scene.

We rescheduled another test shoot at the film location (Potters Bar, Francis house) to be on 19/2/2012. This meant we would have to catch up really quick with the editing of that week hopefully finishing by 22/02/2012; so that we can do our real shoot on 26/02/2012

Behind the scenes

Here is a behind the scenes view of our test shoot. We are setting up for shot 6, the focus pull of the man washing his hands behind the drugs.

Group 2 LotusTest Shoot

This is our test shoot footage edited into a rough edit which matches our animatic.
The test shoot itself went pretty smoothly. We started quite slowly however and found ourselves a bit rushed towards the end. This meant we didn't use the clapperboard towards the end, something we need to do for our real shoot. We alos didn't have access to the proper lighting kit for this shoot and also had some stand in props but all these issues will be sorted out for our real shoot next week.
There were many great shots and positives from the test shoot, in particular the general style of the opening CU's and the idea of the shadow in the shooting scene. However there are also many things we need to work on and improve on our next shoot. This is all detailed in the Teacher Feedback post above.

Costume, Props, Make-up

Here are all the props that are needed:

Costume

Man:

Dark suite with a tie and white shirt

Lotus:

Grey jeans, military boots, black vest top and a leather jacket if possible

Props:

Whisky bottle

Whisky glass

Briefcase

Big knives

Stack of money and fake money (a lot)

Cigars

Ash tray

Drugs (flour in clear bags, pills

Gun

Table

Drinking storage e.g. Silver tray or shelves

Make-up:

Blood

Concealer for both shades

Face paint/ eye shadow

Latex/lash glue

Cotton

Eye liner  

Costumes

Here are the final costumes we will be using:

For Lotus we went for simple, practical clothing. We wanted it to be dark to contribute to the "shadow" idea. Not photographed is the leather jacket she wears which makes her look sleek and classy as well as hard and professional.

As for the "businessman" we wanted him to be in a shirt, tie and suit, formal trousers and formal shoes to connote the ideas of money, greed and dodgy business (which the iconography helps with.) This is shown in the photo above.

Shot log

We made sure we were organised and kept to our schedule by noting down everything on the table.  It also will help us when editing when using time codes. Here are our shot logs:

Shoot Schedule

This is our shoot schedule.  We have planned when we will film each shot throughout our day of production, giving it structure and organisation.  Surely nothing can go wrong now??
Set-Ups:
11:00 Dress Set and Walkthrough
12:00 Sink Setup: 1, 5
12: 20 Knife Setup: 2,
12: 30 Sharpening Setup: 3
12: 40 Radio Setup: 4
12: 50 Kitchen Setup: 6
13:00 Briefcase Setup 1: 7, 8
13: 20 Briefcase Setup 2: 9
Lunch
14:20 Walkthrough setup: 10
14: 30 Long shot Front Room Setup: 11, 25
14:50 Chair Setup: 12, 15,16,19,22
15: 40Drink Setup: 17, 20, 21
16: 10 Headshot Setup: 18, 23, 24
16:40 Picking Up Briefcase Setup: 27, 28, 29
17:10 Money in Briefcase Setup: 13
17:20 Flicking through money Setup: 14
17:30 Glove Setup: 26
17: 40 Outside setup: 32
(Hour allowance means 19:00)
Hollywood:
Hollywood Chair setup: 30
Boss ear to phone setup: 31
Lips Boss Setup: 33
Walk out hotel setup: 34
Walk down Hollywood Boulevard setup: 35

Animatic for opening sequence

Here is the finished animatic for our sequence.  It has really helped us visualise how our final product will turn out, and has enabled us to consider shot duration and timings without yet filming, definitely worth the time doing! One thing we need to change is the script, as it isn't sounding quite right yet. After talking with our teachers we've also decided for the purpose of this opening sequence, it's best not to use bad language.