Preliminary Task - Shot lists, Filming and editing

Shot List 

After creating the script and the storyboard we could make our shot list to show what camera angles we would want on our preliminary task, when looking at the shot list combined with the storyboard we can get a really good idea of what camera angles we wanted to use in our actual film and what it will look like. We used a wide range of shots in our film including match on match action, and camera angles such as close ups, extreme close ups and also over the shoulder shots. Our shot list that we had created was actually accurate to our preliminary film but as our film will need to be extended we will need to increase the amount of shots therefore extending the shot list.

Filming

When we went to record the film we used the school the we go to as our location which worked quite well as that's where we and our actors go to school so it was mostly based around convenience, it also worked well due to the layout of the school, it worked well as the school had long corridors so when the character walks for quite a long time down a corridor we had the space to film it all in one shot so it flowed well and it looked better. The doors also helped as they were doors where to open them was to push it so we could get close ups of it that looked exactly how we wanted it to. To film it we used a camcorder but it ran out of battery half way through filming and we didn't have a charger so we had to re-film everything with a friends iPhone which worked quite well in respect of the quality as it was a 1080p camera and looked good on the phone itself but had some problems when it came to editing. 

Editing

For editing our film cam edited it on his mac at home, the program which he used was called iMovie. This software worked well and as he knew how to edit films using this software as he had done it before and it looked good. There were some issues with editing as we used an iPhone 5 to film it so when we transferred it onto the mac to edit it it had become stretched and sideways, when you look at it you have to tilt your head. So when it comes to the final film we will use a professional camcorder so the final film will look as good as it could possibly be. As this is just a preliminary task doing pretty much everything (such as using the macs, filming and editing.) was quite new to me so doing this preliminary task has heightened my skills in media and the final film will look as professional as we can make it.

This is the shot list that we referred to when filming. 

Preliminary Task - Brainstorming, Storyboard and the script

Brainstorming

For my preliminary task we brainstormed what theme of video we wanted to create, we had many choices as we both like to enjoy a large range of  TV and film so we could have created many different themes of film to do for our overall task. One of the themes we had looked at specifically was comedy, me and my partner both enjoy comedy films and have interpreted some aspects of comedy into our lives and could quite easily have created a film on it, but after some thought it is hard to make comedy that is perfect. I mean perfect in the sense that comedy can sometimes not be funny and could lose interest when viewing it and the other side of the spectrum is that it could be too offensive or edgy. Some can find it funny as they have different tastes to others. A second area we looked at was horror, personally i like horror such as the Saw series where as the other person i work with does not like them so it would not be enjoyable for my partner to film and would not be able to contribute much when filming and editing. But after some thought we had decided that we would like to do a crime based drama as that kind of style we both like and it isn't as hard to do compared to comedy as with the crime drama people watching it usually has the same tastes and would all enjoy it. We both like crime dramas such as Top Boy as the plots, themes and generally everything about the filming we both enjoyed. After we did our brainstorming on what kind of theme we wanted to we would the create a storyboard

Storyboard 

Our storyboard that we created helped us in our filming greatly, this is because it was a template but also a guideline to what we wanted to film to look like .The storyboard contained illustrations shot by shot of what we wanted our film to look like and we can compare it to our film to make sure it looks how we wanted it to. We used the storyboard as a visual aid to lay the foundations for the story before we had started the production, so when we were actually filming it we looked at the storyboard to make sure the camera angles and the camera movement were correct.

This is the storyboard i drew up, we used this to stick to what we wanted

Script

Following this we then could create a rough idea of a script, our script will have a rough idea of what the characters in the film will say and what kind of 'vibe' it will have but it will most likely be altered/changed slightly when it comes to the final film is complete. The script that we wrote is meant to portray what was going on and can give some background knowledge to the situation that the characters in my film are placed it as there is information before filming that needs to be known, as it contains one of the characters having a meaningful figure taken away from them and they want to get them back. Because of the situation they are placed in and as it is a crime based drama the film will most likely contain some strong language and there will be a high level of anger and negative emotions throughout the whole film. At the moment our script isn't long enough as it is only around 1 minute long as it is only our preliminary film and for our final product it will have to be around 2 minutes so there will be some changes and extending to the storyboard and the script to make it as good as it can be.

This is the script we used in our film