Film session 7

Looking back at the footage of film session 4, I realized that what I was watching wasn’t exactly what I expected. For example, the high angle in shot 58 was too short; the length of the voice over was longer then the actual shot, therefore I had to be done again.
Shot 57, was not continues, when doing this shot I made a mistake. Mark never stopped, he was meant to stop as the next shot was a 360 degree shot of him, when watching both shots back it never made sense Dylan had to stop in order to create a sense of continuity, so to show him in a frozen position and then be able to begin the next shot (the 360degree shot) of him in that frozen position. I wanted the last shot, shot number 82, to be a dolly shot instead of a close up. This would be vey beneficial in the voice he says ‘I guess I have to decide’ therefore we never know whether he commits suicide or triumphs over the depression it ends with uncertainty, the dolly shot would reinforce this uncertainty by creating a dreary and weird atmosphere within the frame. Therefore I had to shoot the long shot in shot 57, the high angle in shot 58, and the dolly shot in shot 82.
Similar to the mistake I made in film session 4, I forgot a prop but in this case it was the black jumper it was another mistake and since the time I had with Dylan was limited this mistake was very costly. The time available was period 3, which was 1 hour, I had no choice but to run home since there was only 3 shots I wasn’t as nervous so when I was running home I took a few breaks unlike the extreme pace I ran in film session 4. When I arrived back at school it was 11:50 giving us 30 minutes to shoot. We successfully managed to shoot shot number 57 and 58, I replayed the footage I order to see whether I got what I expected; i shot shot number 57 3 times abd 58 3 times; i got what i wanted. The dolly shot was in fact that most daunting shot, it required me to zoom in and walk back at same time. I had to zoom in at a steady speed one which was in length with the distance I was walking back in. After at least 6 takes I was able to get a dolly shot of 4 seconds, it was longer then the voice over which was ‘I guess I have to decide’ which if said is 3 seconds, the shot was achieved and overwhelming process of filming was now over.


A 360 degree shot
When we first did this, Dylan never stopped, he was meant to stop in order to create a sense of continuity so to show him in a frozen position and then be able to begin the next shot (the 360degree shot). Because of this mistake I had to shoot shot 57 again.


T shirt



I forgot to bring the t shirt which meant that I had to run home to get the t shirt, it was another mistake. It made us loose a lot of our limited time.



Dolly shot



It required me to zoom in and move back at the same time, it took us 6 takes to do but we managed to do it.

Film Schedule for Film Session 7

Wednesday 8th November

Location: Library
Start: 11:20

11:20 to 12:20: Shoot shot numbers 57, 58 and 82.

Film session 6

Before we even did this scene I had to rearrange my room. Originally the table was placed were the bed is and the bed was at the far back. This scene was about exploring how depression affects his educational life, for example how it prevents him from being able to revise. I wanted to show the audience that it is a bed room by showing the bed, the original setting would not allow me to do (because you could only see the table not the bed so the audience wont know it is a bedroom), however by rearranging the room where in the frame you can see the desk and the background showing the bed and wardrobe the audiences are able to see a man studying in a bedroom.

I originally planned to bring the TV up stairs in my room to do shot number 2, but because I forgot to do it the night before I never managed to bring the TV upstairs.
The whole point of having the TV part was to show the audience that Mark found it difficult to do simple things like watch TV, and finds it impossible to make decision like decide watch channel to watch.
The TV would show the continuous changing of channels, which he then turns off and the audience would see a black screen highlighting his inability to make a decision which is a symptom of depression, however this mistake of forgetting to arrange the TV prevented me from showing this to the audiences.

This left me with no choice but to shoot what I had planned, and leave TV bit out. As you can see in the film, Mark has the remote in his hand, and then there is a close up to show him pressing the remote, is has the same affect to what I originally planned, as the pressing of the remote emphasis he’s inability to choose a channel.

I also made another mistake, the remote part would only make sense (to the audience) if I did shot number 5 (which shows his placing his palms on his hand which highlights his frustration of not being able to choose a channel), however I forgot the fact that I never this did shot undermined and ruined this part of the film as the audiences wont understand whats happening.



We never had the time to find a therapist leaflet, so instead at school I created a leaflet by a well known charitable organization ‘Samaritans’ I also provided a number to make it look realistic.







The difficulty part of shooting this scene was the suicide note. When Dylan was writing the suicide note, I wanted the audience to hear what his writing in the voice over. So to do this I placed the dialogue sheet in front of him (it was a high angle shot so we only needed to see Dylan arms) and I asked him to read out the suicide note as he was writing it. This would beneficial when it comes to editing, it will firstly make it easier for me to do the voice over (as Dylan could read the dialogue at the same pace), and secondly in editing it will enable me to match the dialogue with the footage accurately and at the same time.

This scene also required Dylan to improvise. In shot number 14, Dylan hears scribbling (he doest hear scribbling of the pen when he’s writing, I intend to create this noise in post production). As he can’t hear it he has to act as if he can hear it and it is irritating him. When he’s writing, I firstly asked him to write slowly because it will allow me to get create a low level scribbling noise, then I tell him to write faster (so to adjust the pitch of this noise in post production), then faster and faster (to adjust it even more higher). The bit when he itches he’s head forcefully I asked him to act as if he can hear a noise which is driven him made, we did it a few times in order to give me more of a chance of matching the high pitched noise with the footage.

Props




Biology revision book and notepad.










‘Of mice and men’, in the film we see a close up of this book I do this because later on we come back to this book in the school scene were on the board you see an essay question based on this book. When he forcefully places the book on the table because he cant read it is meant to be parallel to when he cant do the essay I the classroom. It highlights the fact that the depression he experiences at home has affected his school grades.

Film Schedule for Film Session 6 / Shot List

Wednesday 4th December


Location: Bedroom, (My House)
Start Time: 11:20

11:20: Meet Dylan and at school in common, then go home to do scene.
11:35: Arrive at location
11:35 to 1:00: shoot shot numbers 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15.

Shot List

1st made Poster

This is the first poster i made, but i intend to improve it.

Film Session 5

Since I never managed to do the Time Lapse in film session 2 I had no choice but to shoot on another day.

A time lapse refers to a technique that photographs a naturally slow process, such as plant growth, on movie film at intervals, so that continuous projection of the frames gives a speeded up view of the process. I wanted to use this shot in order to show time passing during the exam, and in order to explore Marks inner feeling of jealousy and misery through the voice over whilst the shot is happening. This was definitely the most difficult shoot. Before I shoot this shot I did research into a ‘Time Lapse Shot’ some websites talked about DSLR and some talked about an intervalometer, as they were using all these complicated words and tools and software’s I never understood what they were talking about and how to do a time lapse shot. I spoke to my teachers and the film maker but I still never fully understood how to do it. After speaking to my class pears, one of the students Mehdi Idrissi told me that in his camera he had a time lapse button, he gave me a tutorial about how to use it; it was simple you just press a button and that’s it, at this moment I was ready to do this shot.

However, I realized that since I was shooting on a different day I needed to have continuity, the extras would obviously be wearing different clothes.
Within this shot I never needed to use the entire cast of extras, I only needed the final two rows. (as you can see in the image)











In order to overcome the problem of continuity, I made a thread on facebook asking the extras if they would be kind enough to be involved in the film again and if they could wear the same clothes (in the thread I provided a clothes description of what each individual was wearing).
Since everyone’s school time table was different (some may have started school after break, period 4 or even period 5), so I needed to organize a time were everyone was in school, in my head I had rough idea of when they were free I suggested to them the 25th November at break time, I was lucky yes (they will do it and the time was good)

I had lessons period 1 and period 2, so I asked my sociology teacher if I could leave 10 minutes early in order to organize the room so the tables and chairs were in the same place, I managed to do this successfully. It was now 11:00, none of the extras were here , time was running, all the extras came around 11:04, Medhi came around 11:06 (I needed Mehdi because I needed he’s camera I also needed him to support me whilst doing this shot) . Everyone was here except Dylan the main character, he text me saying ‘Really bad traffic man . Get everything ready so we can start straight away’ everything was ready except him. He came at 11:10, giving us 10 minutes to shoot. When he came we were ready to shoot, we did the time lapse shot from the right angle, we also did a zoom in a shot which I forget about, and we were also very pragmatic we did another time lapse shot from the left. Despite the fact that Harry (person sitting next to Dylan) was wearing a brown jumper, overall it was a successful day and I managed to get my shots plus more.

How to do a Time Lapse Shot (the most difficult shot in the world)

The process i went through when doing the shot:


1 Time Lapse Begins












2)Press the time lapse button on the camera.

















3) When pressed Direct the 1st extra on the left to walk out of the frame, and then direct them to walk back in the frame (back in sit). Do the same thing for the 2nd, 3rd and 4th extra.











How did I direct them:

When I called their name out they walked out of frame, when their out of frame I called out their name again and they walked back in frame (in sit).

Continuity problem















As you can see Harry the extra is wearing a white t shirt in the first time we shot this scene (because we never managed to the time lapse we had to do another day), to overcome the problem of continuity I sent a facebook threak asking everyone to wear the same clothes (I provided a description of what they were wearing) Harry forgot s you can see when we did the time lapse harry is wearing a brown t shirt.

Film Schedule for Film 5

Thursdays 25th November

Since we failed to shoot the Time Lapse Shot in Film session 2, I planned to do this shot on this day.

Since there is only one shot it will make sense to shoot this shot at break time

11:00 to 11:05 – bring all extras on second last row, and last row (only harry and main character Dylan)

11:05 to 11:200 – Shoot time Lapse shot.