One thing I like is the fact that we managed to bring in our own ideology into the genre of vampires. There is a trend for films to do this nowadays and I feel it was the right thing to do. It shows planning in my opinion as we did have a whole day of coming up with the myths behind our film at the same time as keeping some of the original concepts of vampires.

the script writing was one of the most succesful parts of the film process. None of us in the group are very good at writing scripts, however as a team we manged to put together a good script through our own ideas and inputs to create a hybrid of ideas within one script. I was surprised we had manged to produce a script of such quality through only 6 drafts as I thought it would have taken longer. For a short we have a lot of dialogue, but I think this daring act paid off as it didn’t ruin the idea of a short.

the casting went well, even though there was a cast member pull out, we still managed to get a good bunch of actors in to produce stella performances. They really helped as they where on long shooting days lasting over several hours. but they kept their heads up and acted well.

I’m im totally honest I wish I could have had a bit more freedom on the camera work. I feel that the final piece doesn’t do us 3 years of work justice. To me it could have been a lot better. I don’t think its bad, but I think there was so much we could have done to have improved it.

Over all I am fairly happy with the film we have produced, though I would have liked to have had something a bit better and possibly a bit more professional looking. But I feel we produced a piece of work to a high standard that people will like.

We had some minor problems to start with as Tara had brought the rough cut on her mac, so that’s one problem! But for some reason she was unable to burn it to a disc so we had to wait until towards the end to show it as she finally managed to get it onto a USB hardrive and showcase it.

If im honest I didn’t think ours was the best. But I certainly don’t think it was the worst either. I just felt that a lot of other peoples work was more polished off than ours. Though this did not faze me as our piece didn’t look bad, it just looked unfinished, which is perfectly acceptable at this stage.

We could have done with a bit more feedback, but I maintain the belief that no feedback is good feedback. Though someone did say they didn’t realise it was over 9 mins long. For me, when you enjoy something time seems to go quicker, so I am applying that to this situation.

I am pleased with showing the 1st rough cut version and am now really looking forward to seeing the final graded version.

The 1st draft I did seemed to be a bit cluttered:

Version 1

So the next two designs are similar but just less cluttered up.

Version 2

Version 3

I like the version 3 cover, however both Tara and Gemma wish for it to be a bit more simple so the “front” is to be replaced with plain with just text instead. I also need to add the “Pal” sign and put a running time, however this is difficult as we do not know the exact run time yet, so it will be “approx 9 mins” which is what the final cut is predicted to be.

Final Version

]]> http://finalyearben.wordpress.com/2010/04/17/dvd-cover-design/feed/ 0 plebb Cover v1 jpeg Cover v2 jpeg Cover v3 jpeg Cover Final http://finalyearben.wordpress.com/2010/04/01/filming-day-four-30th-march-2010/ http://finalyearben.wordpress.com/2010/04/01/filming-day-four-30th-march-2010/#comments Thu, 01 Apr 2010 12:23:49 +0000 plebb http://finalyearben.wordpress.com/?p=339 ]]> Today had a certain buzz in the air. I think it was due to the knowledge that this was the final day of shooting. We all arrived at Counden Court school and I immediately remembered why we liked this place. The feel of the school was perfect and the staff where still really friendly and willing to help out. After signing in we walked down the corridor until we found the area which me and Terry had seen before. It was fairly open and had stairs and an exit. It was perfect looking and with both Tomos and Laurie in there costume it really did feel like they could really be at school here.

We practiced a few different shots as one of the scenes I wanted the camera to move on a dolly to reveal Tomos behind a wall ready to jump out. This was tricky to get the movement exactly right but we managed to pull it off. The one problem was it was a tiny bit echoey so I am worried it will show up on the edit, however it wasnt that bad so im sure it will be fine.

This was Tomos’s first big dialogue scene. His character had been slashed of lines throughout the new versions of script, so this really was Tomos’s time to shine. He did. He was extremely natural on camera and delivered his lines perfectly and really made us all feel he was the character. Laurie was brilliant as well, but she had done more dialogue scenes than Tomos so we all felt this scene belonged to him.

Today went extremely well and we even managed to film the final ending shot outside as the time of the day was perfect due to us finishing early. I am really pleased with how the day went as everyone turned up feeling positive and there was pretty much no problems. It was great to finally see Tomos act and it was a great feeling knowing that it was a production wrap on “Bettie Perry” even if it did feel ever so slightly sad that it was finished.

I am pleased with how the shoots have gone and really hope our hard work has paid off and am now really looking forward to seeing the finished film.

Todays shoot was at the house. However as we were meant to shoot the scene where Max is taken by Tristiana on monday, we had to film it today. Tomos was coming over purely for that scene so we decided to do it first before it got to dark. Unfortunately it was raining and was very cold, so me and Tara quickly went over everything for this scene so we could get it done as quickly as possible so that Becky didnt freeze to death!

We felt bad because Becky’s character wears a lot of costumes where the is lots of flesh on display, so it was essential we filmed quickly and had coats and umbrellas on the ready for a soon as cut was yelled. Both Becky and Tomos acted really well and got the scene done really fast despite it raining and being freezing cold. We filmed Becky’s parts first so she could get in quickly then Tomos’ as the rest would be done in editing.

We had to act fast for the rest of the scene as in the kitchen we needed natural daylight and it was starting to get dark. Tara had decided she wanted the two kitchen scenes to be heavy in dialogue to aid the story and both to be around the same time, so my challenge was to light it so they looked the same and with daylight still coming through. We managed to successfully film the scenes without problems quickly and I feel the lighting looked great.

The scenes in the bedroom where fine and the room turned out to have fantastic natural lighting so only needed subtly lighting. I thought this was going to cause huge problems due to the massive wall of mirrors in the room, which was one reason we chose the location, but it turned out fine and enabled us to get some great looking shots.

The rest of the shoot went absolutely fine without any problems and even led to us all having a laugh with the end of the day, which was really fun and left us feeling happy and pleased with how the day went.

The frustrating thing was that it did rain…but not until later on when we would have finished the shoot. So today seemed like it was wasted.

I spent the day working on the shot lists and communicating with Tara about how she wanted certain shots to look.  As we have locked down days and these cannot be altered due to the actors availability, we have decided to only do 4 days of filming instead of 5. So we will be filming the scene we were meant to film today on Monday alongside the other scenes scheduled to be filmed on that day. This is not a problem but means we will need to arrive earlier to set up.

When we arrived we met up with the schools facilities manager Paul O’ Brien. He was very nice and explained that their main concern was about the filming with children around. This is an obvious concern and we in no way wanted to upset the school so we agreed that if we where to film here it would be after the school had finished for the day. This suited us fine as the days where still light at around 4pm.

My first impression was that the school had a mysteriously haunting feeling, which would fit the look, however wasnt quite right. Further on in the tour we found the perfect modern school looking hallway which to our luck was one of the places we could film.

We where then shown the outside which we could film, as we required a “happily ever after” walk away scene. It could not have looked more perfect! A long drive with creepy trees in the background and part of the school building near, which would not be recognised as a school.

Over all the recce was a massive success as we have agreed a time to come and the date suites them fine. I am no looking forward to filming the final scenes here on Tuesday 30th March.

Counden Court School

(Click for map)

We decided to meet and hour earlier this time so we could have everything 100% ready for when the cast arrive. If im honest this was a scary thought as I knew todays shoot was going to be longer than the 1st shoot, which lasted 7 hours! But I was determined to stay focused and professional. The call time was changed as we knew they couldn’t all make it at the same time, so we moved it back to a time when they could all arrive at the same time as they where all needed together.

It was really handy having so much time as it allowed us to test the lighting, which was a pain due to the low-key natural lighting already in place. Also we where experimenting with a high-def 200FPS shot on the camera, which took some time to set up and test. The lighting needed to be good in order for it to be good detail and thankfully the tests showed good results.

Tara had written up the shot order after I had produced a shot list. This worked really well as it made the shoot less stressful and a lot more organised, however it left Tomos sat around waiting for a long time, which he insisted he didn’t mind, but we still felt back. The problem was he was needed in the background as he was meant to be in an “under a spell” type state.

One cool thing was that we had a scene where blood was involved. This meant we had to have a change of clothes for Jonathan as his character was due to get stabbed with a sliver sword by Tristiana. Tara and Gemma had read an article in a magazine written by a SFX professional who gave the instructions on how to make authentic looking hollywood blood. If im honest I thought the blood looked to thick, however it was still obvious what it was meant to be. Gemma head brought Anthony along, who created a bursting blood bag so we could shoot Jonathan’s character bleeding out after he had been stabbed to give it a bit more excitement. The one problem was that we had placed plastic underneath Jonathan’s shirt to stop the blood getting on him and staining, but we could clearly hear the rustling of the plastic, so the sound will need to be replaced on the final edit.

Over all today was a big success. 9 hours on set was the only drawback, however the fact that the cast and crew all got on well and we filmed exactly what we had set out to was great. The lighting still feels like a problem, but if im honest looking through the viewfinder of the camera  I could see that it looked pretty good and gave it that dark seedy atmosphere that the film needs.

I am very pleased with todays shoot as I feel we got exactly what we wanted with hardly any complications and left the day with spirits high and feeling of looking forward to the 3rd day of shooting.

Jonathan gets into character.

Being able to see the finished footage has opened our eyes to see the shots hat really didn’t work. This is good as I now know what to avoid with the other shoots. Tara is mainly doing the editing, but I have offered my help as I feel it would be good to get more than one person editing along with the whole groups input so we cane create the best piece possible.

One thing we had discussed was whether to film in widescreen or not. After reviewing the footage it was found that one shot was in widescreen whilst the others were not. Tara was sure you film in widescreen where as I was sure you didn’t. Clifton, our tutor, said you should film in widescreen and so did Bex the technician, so Tara was correct and we decided to film in widescreen.

We also decided that Terry would assume the role of promotion, which would mean he would organise things such as flyers, poster, invites, items for the degree show etc as we want to screen the film outside of uni, so Terry will start to take a look at the options.

Gemma is looking into obtaining a website for our film as we have found out that either “www.bettieperry.co.uk” or “www.bettieperry.com” are free. So we decided to go for the “.co.uk” option to keep the emphasis on the fact that it was a British student production….plus its cheaper! So that will be up and running in the next few days, which is exciting.

Other issues raised where costume. As Jonathan, who plays “Alan/Malthor” would be getting stabbed in the next scene and would have blood on his shirt, we needed to talk about buying multiple shirts. Also Laurie, who plays “Bettie” would need another change also as she would be comforting him as he dies and would possibly get blood (Food dye, syrup and something else..yum!) on her.

The actual tutorial with Clifton was straight forward. He is very happy with the stage we are at and is confident with us that we don’t need guidance. He also looked at the footage and actually commented on how good the lighting looked, which was great to hear as we hadn’t actually told him it was a concern for us. He was pleased with how it looked and said we where doing really well so we are all happy and now looking towards the second shoot on monday.

The day started off with a few small snags, the dolly with polls was too big to fit in Tara’s car, so against my choice we had to take a free wheel dolly instead which was not my 1st choice. After arriving we also found out that the dedo light kit was missing a stand. I felt stupid as it was such a rookie mistake to not check equipment before you leave with it but I was determined not to let this spoil the shoot. In the end on camera the natural lighting looked great, so we only used subtle lighting to compliment certain areas. After the application of a filter on the cameras settings, the shots looked really nice and dark, which boosted the atmosphere of the piece.

As Tara was doing a lot driving around, it took us quite a while to get set up and work out which shots we where going to go with first as I hadn’t sent the shot lists early enough to Tara, so when she came back it was a bit of a rush to get everything set up in time.

I don’t know whether it was the stress of the event or us not taking roles seriously enough, but we all seemed to get on each others nerves a lot. I felt Tara wasn’t listening to me or hearing out my opinions but at the same time she didn’t think I was doing my role properly. This was all minor issues as in the end we got our acts together and filmed exactly what we wanted.

Another problem was out of the tonnes of people who agreed to turn up, only one person did. So we had to change the 1st scene set up. Instead of having a vampire council style, we just had ‘Malthor’, ‘Tristiana’ and ‘Vampire victim’. Although this was not ideal, it did look good on-screen so this didn’t bother me too much. But I still would have prefered to have had the extras. Although there was only one extra, she did play the role of quivering vampire very well. She put up with us filming her lots and even let Tara do the make up.

If I am honest I felt we successfully pulled of a good shoot, despite being very unorganised and having a few technical problems and wanting to kill each other at the start. The footage looks good when we play it back and the audio sounds good. I think for the next shoot we need to make sure we are MUCH more organised and agree the exact roles and not argue with each other.

Things to improve:

• Tara as taxi – We need to re-think the order in which i collect things/people to make the most of time.
• Clarification of roles – This has been discussed in the group and people are now more aware of each other’s role.
• Shot lists – They will have to be done further in advance so that Tara  can review them in time. We also need a list of shots rather than just the order we want the shots in.
• Check equipment before leaving the loan shop – Something we should have already done.
• Extras – Be more professional with them, e-mail individually to confirm, give firm instructions etc.

Here are some pictures from the shoot: