Main Problems With Our Filming

Within the making of this film we are going to encounter a lot of problems along the way. One of the best ways I believe to tackle those problems is looking at them early on, this is why I have listed some of our initial problems with the film.

The first problem is a big one... actors. Although we only have about four characters but one splits into a possible two roles their age is a problem. The reason for this is our main protagonist is considerably older than any of the students or teachers at Chalfonts. The reason is because we want someone this age is because they have to look like a World War Two veteran. This is going to be very hard to find someone that age willing to act for free.
Our initial thoughts on this problem was to use grandparents from our families to act in it but this film is going to take up a lot of they're time so we decided that we needed a back up plan. A way around this is using the young actor as the older man as well by using makeup or a mask. 

Another problem is to do with location such as the retirement home and the battlefield because these locations are specific and require a lot of aspects that have to be right. The battlefield for example can't have anything modern on  it within the shot because this would take the audience out of the time zone therefore ruining the film. To avoid this I made sure that the war scenes were medium or close ups so that not much of the background is seen. Another option is to have the flashbacks take place in a kind of cross over time zone where the young character is back in World War Two but this takes place in the current year. This would avoid the problem of the background however I don't think this would be as gripping as the first idea.

Lastly the visual effects, this isn't as much of a problem as the other two because I can just learn how to do them effectively. However I think it would be important to have some test shots for the visual effects and transitions because then we will have confidence in what we are doing.

Credit To George Turner

How We Plan To Use Typography

Storyboard

In our opening sequence we have to include certain texts providing information about the people involved within the making of the film. I have started looking at some examples of opening title sequences before but now I believe that it is more important to narrow down my research to the ones that the group like. This is important because we origianlly wanted the text to be apart of the opening therefore we have to now look at our storyboard and decide on when and how our text appears on screen.

Our initial thoughts as a group were to have two different fonts which behaved differently depending on the scene they were in. For example in the scenes with the older protagonist we decided that it wouldn't work to have the 'jittery' text because these scenes are slower and sadder due to the character being overwhelmed with the flashback. In addition the 'jitteryness' wouldn't reflect the loneliness and shock the character is experiencing in these scene and would feel out of place therefore leading to the opening not working as a hole. 

Another option was to keep the titles in just one part, for example just the jittery part of the opening. However this may cause the text to become repetitive and meaningless because the audience may overlook it. This is why I believe we should and use different fonts that behave differently. 

Examples of openings we liked included: 

• Batman TV series 
• Batman Dark Knight Rises
• Dr. No (James Bond)
• Dexter
• Vertigo 

Credit George Turner

Short Films And Scenes

I looked this this short film because I though it had outstanding props and costume, which I felt is a very important aspect to a war film because it shows the audience the time period and which side your character is on. In addition some of the scenes were shot in a higher frame rate making the action more intense. I would like to adopt this technique because I felt it provided a more intense experience.

Another aspect I like was actually in the thumbnail. I loved the black and white tone in this photo and I might suggest that some of the war scenes are black and white because it would contrast to the other shots, which would be in colour.

I also watched the iconic 'Saving Private Ryan' to get and idea of ​​how Spielberg used the camera to create emotions such as fear and anger form the characters. I further looked at props to include in our film such as the guns and the types of visual effects like explosions form mines etc. 
Both films shared the same war however it was shown in many different ways maybe because of a difference in storyline and budget. However both films used props well and created an interesting story through war. 

Credit To George Turner

Storyboard For War Thriller

The Storyboard: 

As a group we discussed what we wanted from our film and the style we were going for, however we had not yet though about what our shots and transitions were going to look like. 
The first step was to create a storyboard, this is because a storyboard allows every member of the group to put their ideas forward and then have a visual representation of the film. Before diving in to this Mariella wrote up a brief story that we as a group had already discussed; explaining briefly what was going to happen in our story Meanwhile Katy gathered locations and costume so that we knew what our characters would look like and the environment they would be placed in and I looked at examples of war thriller short films that could inspire us. 

After those tasks were completed I was given the task of creating a storyboard that would represent our ideas best. To do this I made a storyboard template and printed four sheets so that we could have enough room for every shot. The reason I wanted to put so much work into the storyboard is because I feel that when you have a clearly laid out storyboard it's easier to organise the narrative creatively. 

This task did take me a while because I put a lot of thought into every shot thinking about practicality as well as creativity. An example of this is on the last page shot three because I would of loved to have both characters in the same shot however we would have to use after effects, which in my experience is not very reliable. Therefore I made ​​it an OSS so that we could just have another actor instead of using masks etc. Another aspect I put a lot of time into was transitions because I wanted to make sure that the narrative flowed well to set up the story, which would follow after our opening. Our aim overall aim was to upset the equilibrium without killing off any characters or changing the story. To achieve this we used flash backs to World War Two throughout our opening which would keep our audience gripped. 
  
In addition to this I also made ​​sure that we had research on 'Waterboarding' because I wanted to make sure that the film was some what accurate to the time period we wanted the film to be set in. While doing this I kept messaging my group my concerns and ideas and made ​​sure that they were contributing to the storyboard with their ideas. 

Lastly when it was done Mariella reminded me that we wanted a first person drowning scene that we added as a side 
         note on page two. Overall I felt we worked well as a team on    this one and I hope the film planned. 

Credit To George Turner

Updated Research List

Once we had completed our story board we realised that we needed to update our props list as parts of our story line had been adapted.

Updated props list

• WW2 Gun - For the main protagonist as a young man
• Modern Tap - For the close ups
• 1940s hose pipe - For boarding 
• 1940s bucket (Metal) - For water boarding
• Dog - For old man walking
• Dog leed - Old man walking
• Match - Close ups
• Wheel chair - End scene
• Belt Straps - End scene
• Cloth - Waterboarding 
• Bed 

Credit To Mariella

What To Get For Our Thriller Opening

To do, (and to blog) for our war time thriller opening, in no particular order:

1. Plot Overview
2. Story Board (NB- 180 degree rule storyboard needs to be completed too)
3. shot list
4. Filming Schedule
5. Risk Assessment
6. Copyright Issues (If any)
7. Anamatic
8. Test shots
9. Research of specific things (see previous post for what needs to be/ has been researched)
10. Actors Research
11. Further thought and depth into character

And then, obviously, the actual filming and editing.

Credit To Mariella

Prop Research

One of the props I had to research was what type of gun would have been used during World War II. When looking on Google images i found this diagram of all different types of guns that were used and an explanation of what each one would have been used for and it specialty.

The next prop I had to research was a dog with a lead? So therefore I decided I would type into Google 'old man dog' so that i could get the best representation and example that i could for our research. The main images that came up were quite small dogs such as Beagles, Jack Russels and Greyhounds, however i was not happy with this outcome so i decided to look up World War II dogs as it is likely that the man  would stick with the same type of dog he had from the memories he is flashing back to. Once i typed this in it became a more refined research as the main dog that came up was a German Shepard, therefore it is likely that our persona will be walking this type of dog.

180 Degree Reshoot

This is our re-shoot of our 180 degree angle rule video. I am much more pleased with the outcome of this video as there were massive improvements made compared to the last shoot. As we had better equipment such as a canon compared to an Iphone, as well as we used a tripod so that the camera wouldn't shake which enable us to create more creative shots. When George edited this video he used much less colour correction however he did place a luminance mask over the footage giving the footage a cinematic feel. However George did end up changing the last shot on the storyboard as the camera was not stable enough to make the last shot look good, therefore making our whole video downfall. He did try to use a smoothcam on it however it did not seem to improve anything, therefore he gave it a jittery feel because then the rule is broken.

Location research

The first location I started with was the care home, the first room I looked up was the bedroom as he will be mainly filmed in this room what I found out is that they are very basic and plain, usually with pastel colours. They also usually only have a chair/stool, TV, bed and bed side table, therefore they have a very simplistic way of living.

The next room i looked up was the bathroom, what i found out is that their bathrooms are suited especially for them such as a moving chair to help them in and out of the bath, as well as the shower. They also have pole/holders next to the toilet to help them get up and to sit down.

The last room in the care home that i needed to research was the living room which he would not be filmed much in however needed to be researched. What i found out is that it usually has a TV on the wall and they normally have single sofa chairs surrounding the room so everyone can face each other and talk to one another easily.

The last location I had to research was a flat field area. As it would be easier for all of us to film somewhere in Chalfont St Peter I decided to research a location that would be close to us for us to use. One of the images that came up was the fields that start in Chalfont St Peter and lead to Chalfont St Giles. This field would be convenient to film in as it at least an hour long walk so there is plenty of places to film within the space there.

Basic Idea For Our Thriller Opening

The main protagonist is going to be an old veteran who has war flashbacks while going about his everyday life.
The first flashback is going to be someone knocking on his door to wake him up, but he hears a gunshot.
The second is when he is washing his face and flashbacks to when his younger self is getting water torcher by drowning.
The third is when he is walking his dog on a field and he flashbacks to him running through  no mans land with his gun and explosions and planes.
The forth is when he's looking at a house on his walk back and someone turns a light on. He sees a flashback of a house exploding and goes to shield his face, before realising that he is in the present day and is safe.
The fifth and final flashback is when someone is helping him into a wheel chair, but he flashbacks and thinks that hes being shoved and restrained in the chair.
As the flashbacks go on he starts to blur the past with the present and doesn't know what it real, and what is memory. Also throughout the opening, not only does he go through the day but he ages a great deal as well. we are trying to get across that he has a very repetive life after the war and the experiences still take years of his life away, despite the actual experiences being over. The person who was helping him into the wheelchair comes round the front and sits in front of him. "Son", he says, *dramatic cut to black*, "Its time to tell you a story". This sets up the rest of the film, and lets the audience know what they are getting into.

Credit To Mariella

What We Learnt From The Continuity Task

While filming the 180º Rule task I understood how important it was to have a good storyboard because while filming it we quickly required more guidance than was on our storyboard. This was a problem because we were unsure when filming which lead to the film being slightly shorter than what we wanted to achieve. The reason it's so important to realise this now is because when we undershoot its a lot harder to create a pace as an editor because your very limited to the cuts you can make because certain shots have to be held for a certain amounts of time to create the tension required to grip the audience. To overcome this in the main project I will make sure we have not just a detailed storyboard but also a shot list with an animatic so that we can already have a set plan before our shoot. The animatic allows the pace to be set before the shoot allowing us to already know what the film is going to look like.

Another aspect that I picked up on was that our lighting and location wasn't the best. To make sure this doesn't happen again I am going to make sure we do test shots before the shoot to make sure that the location in mind actually achieves what we want in terms of lighting and sound. This helped me realise the importance of test shots, which we did do but I still think we should of taken notes about it and seen if there was any other options in terms of location.

Lastly I think that we should of practiced with my camera because before we used a phone, which was completely different to a DSLR. The reason I think this is important is because I don't think that the group was entirely comfortable with the cannon leading to the shots not to be the best.

Overall I think that we gained loads of knowledge about filming as a group and will be more confident in filming our second project.

Credit To George Turner

Modern day costumes research

The first outfit i had to research was a NHS carer outfit as our main persona that is a past private man of war will be based in a care home, so therefore we will need a carer so i decided to see what nurses/carers wear in this modern day and age. The first image i found was a woman that was wearing the basic plain blue shirt with white lines round the sleeves and collar, overall the outfit is very basic however very symbolic and recognisable.

The next outfit was what our main persona will be wearing the old man, therefore i decided to look up what a old man of our modern day and age stereotypically wears. What i found out is that they usually they wear some sort of knit wear and they wear very basic trousers or long skirts.

The last part of clothing that i had to research was a bomber jacket as it is symbolic of his younger life, which contrasts to his now lonely and isolated life as an older man. This is the typical bomber jacket of the world war time, it is made out of leather and has fur around the collar, typically a pilot would wear this.

Age, Race and Class within WW2 films.

The first film that I found once doing this research was 'Age of Heroes' which is a true story based on the formation of Ian Fleming's 30 commando unit, a precursor for the elite forces within the U.K. and was released in 2011 at the running time of 90 minutes long. The age certificate on this film was a 15, meaning that there would be some references to stronger language, violent scenes; which are expected within a war film or mild sexual references.

The second film I found was 'Inglourious Basterds' which was based on Nazi occupied France during WW2, with the plan to assassinate Nazi leaders in a group of Jewish U.S soldiers. This filmed was given the age certificate of 18, this means that this film would involve high violent scenes which would most likely be extremely graphic which could scare younger viewers, as well as strong language would more than likely be used.

Research Planning

Costumes needed to be researched

• WW2 Private man of war
• NHS modern day carer, either male or female
• Modern day normal clothes for an old man
• Bomber Jacket, preferably male for background symbolism

Locations

• Care home such as the bedroom, bathroom and living area
• Flat field area

Props

• WW2 gun (what type of gun would have been made and used within the era)
• Dog with dog lead

VFX

• Gunshot noises
• Plane flying overhead
• Explosions and Dust within the distance
• House explosions
• Jittery static movement between flashbacks and his normal everyday life

Our Second Project - WW2 Based Thriller

The second project is the one which we will be giving all our attention to after the 180 degree film is edited and uploaded because we want this film to show everything that we have be tort in media and hope that it will look as amazing as we imagine. This film is really going to test us because there isn't a direct link to another film that we could use as help. This is because we have combined two ideas/genres together to create what we hope will be unique film, to some extent. 

The hybrid genre that we want to create is a mix between war thrillers and psychological thrillers because our questionnaires exposed that the youth of today are looking for new psychological thrillers more than others however we didn't want to make a generic psychological thriller because so many others had tried this in media because we as the youth of today like them. So, as a group we came to the decision to create a new hybrid of thriller which younger people would enjoy however would still be new. The reason behind this is because by creating a new hybrid genre it opens windows to pick and choose the conventions that we like from both genres and combine them to create this film. However this doe create more work for us because we then have to research more genres and and then go through the process of seeing what we liked. In the long run I hope this extra work will pay off.

Another point is that this film requires another level of editing that I myself have just started to I think that this is going to be a real push to try and make the film look at a semi-professional level. To make sure that I am up to the challenge I will be research about the way in which these editing techniques are used. For example: Keying, Matting, Chroma-Keying, Colour Grading and 3D Motion Graphics. All of these will serve a purpose in our film to make it look its best.

This is just a small brief of what a huge task is ahead of us.

Credit to George Turner 

Our First Project - 180 Degree Angle

Are first project that we are aiming to finish is our 180 degree angle rule demonstration, which we have already completed our first one with test shots linked in previous blog posts. Our idea is that we will have filmed our secondary and hopefully final shots after school today which means that we will have filmed the hole 180 degree rule and have it edited by George by the end of the week. The reason in which this may be a challenge is that all of my coursework group members will be able to attend to it, therefore we may have to change the day leading to delay of editing and posting it up on the blog. Another problem which could occur is that the clip need to be longer, however we did not film a fight within the last test shots so that could indeed make the clip longer however if not we could pre long the stare out between the two personas.

The problem with the fight is that George would prefer to use his brother so that there are two male personas within the clip as well as George and his brother are both confident/comfortable infront of a camera, where as i am not. His reason is that although he is sure either me or Mariella could be comfortable with punching him in the face, he knows that his brother would act it out perfectly due to many previous fight scenes they have filmed previously on his channel. The secondary problem is that the cut out the fight scene to prevent needing George's brother we would need to make the clip longer using something else which was decided to prelong the stare out, which would require changing or even making a new story board because the camera angles used in the present storyboard create tension building up to the fight scene and if there was no fight scene then it would cause unnecessary tension; to overcome this problem we are going to decide whether we need to change some aspects of the storyboard and if so what parts of the story board.

To improve our clip further we are going to use George's own camera with an X-grip allowing the camera to stay smooth within the fight scene (if it is to happen) so that they is no shaking within the scene or in the last scene when the camera is moving around the persona. As well as we shall use one of the schools tripods if needed to keep the camera completely still. Lastly if we were to film after school today it should mean that the audio will be clearer as the school will not be filled with other students such as in our test shots there was a student outside his classroom and classes going on within the classrooms, which we covered up the sound with music.

Why research the 180 Degree angle?

The reason this rule is so important to understand is that if you were to break the conventions of the rule you would need to know how to make the audience understand it and not get confused with the narrative, therefore you need to understand it so you can play with the conventions to create something original.

As an example this rule is best shown to be explained best through a conversation between two characters, the reason for this is that they can both can look at each other and it does not get complicated. If we wanted to shoot the shoot from a wide angle then we would need two close ups and then create an imaginary line that cuts through the middle of the created scene because the line would make a barrier that the camera should not cross.

The reason to this is that if the camera was to cross the imaginary line within the same shot or scene then the actors would look like they were facing the same direction meaning that they would be next to each other or that the image had been flipped to look like opposite directions. The last problems to this is that it messes up with the eye line match.

Test Shots for 180 Degree Angle

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_-CO8FiI9A

This is our first cuts/video that we have to represent the 180 degree angle; we messed around with some of the conventions deliberately to see how they would come out and to understand why that convention had been made. The reason why I think we should reshoot this video is for the reason that the shots were not filmed/acted to the best ability that they could of been, therefore they could be seen as initial shots as we did not take multiple shots of the same shot, we simply stuck with the first shot we filmed and moved on to the next shot. Also when George was editing the video he noticed some errors such as: it is not fully finished and lacks much sense with the narrative as the filming was not seen as correct, continuity errors such as when I use my hand as a gun; the reason this is an issue is because the changing of the hand makes it harder for the audience to follow the narrative. Therefore all in all I think a reshoot would be the best result as we could follow the storyboard much closer to make the narrative completed as well as continuity errors could be fixed. Furthermore George would also like to use his camera with and X grip to stabilize the camera whilst it tracks the action within the fight because the last shots were not as great due to shakiness of hand grip.

The reshoot should be filmed this week and up on the blog by the end of the week.

Rule of thirds

The rule of thirds is a concept in video and film production, in which the frame is divided into 9 imaginary sections. The Points of interest should lie on the grid lines, either one third or two thirds up the frame horizontally, or across vertically, compared to being positioned in the centre of the frame. 

The Rule of Thirds

This technique is used throughout film and helps divide the frame up into a more interesting composition compared to ones which don't and look weird but until you know this rule you can't figure out why. To get an example of this technique I used in one of my YouTube videos when my actor was holding the sniper so that the audience would take in both the gun and my actor. 

Credit to George Turner

Sound Terms

Sound: 

Parallel Sound - follows the narrative and links in creating a three dimensional world which draws the audience into the film.

Sound Bridge - This is where any sound is carried over several shots to link the narrative. 

Diegetic - Sound that relates to the scene and that can be seen in the scene. (In the field of vision)

Non Diegetic - Sound that's not visible in the scene which may come in the form of a voice over.

Ambient Sound - Background noise belonging to the scene but not always visible within the mes en scene.

Dialogue - The voices of the characters speaking to each other. This is also when the sound is re-recorded and the actors have to lip sync.

Synchronous Sound- This is sound that is in sync with an object/subject such as a car or a persons mouth.

Asynchronous sound - The sound is deliberately out of sync with the scene.

Sound Effect - This is added to the visual production to further exaggerate or mark a moment in the film. It can also be used to make the film seem more naturalistic by exaggerating everyday sounds like footsteps.

Voice Over - This is where the diegesis provides information usually about the visuals on screen to the audience.

Costumes and Ideas for War Thriller

I was given the role to research and look into costume ideas that are used within war-time thrillers, then to show examples of them so that there would be a visual guidance to as what costumes should be worn within our project.

The first thing that i found when researching costumes was a girl aged around 5 years old wearing what a typical evacuee would wear once they had been sent off; which included the name tag they would have worn so that when they reached their destination it was easy to locate them to their right carer as well as a cardboard box as a bag which represents that the working class did not have much money and as the government started to downfall so did the whole country with money, which is why they produced ration cards-which should be part of this outfit or maybe just an adults one- so that people could only buy a selected amount so that they country would not run out. As well as the hat which was the typical hat worn around the 1920-1940's as it was the fashion.

The next outfit i found was a youngish women who was wearing the outfit of what the most well known propaganda sign 'we can do it' wore; a bandana with a working jump suit. The use of the woman tensing her muscles opposed to the stereotypical woman before the war started as they were seen to be in the domestic part of society and men were supposedly part of the political part, therefore having propaganda convincing woman to work within the time period it was set shows the countries desperation to help build itself back up.

The next outfit i found was the male persona of a private man of war he was wearing neutral colours such as beige, yellowy brown and light green, colours that can be associated with camouflage which men would need to wear if they were going to fight so that it would not be easy to be spotted on the battle field by the enemy where as if they were wearing every day bright clothing it would be much easier for them to be spotted.

Who is doing what?

180 Degree Rule Video:

George - Location and scheduling

George - Shot List

Everyone but recorded by George- Story Board

We want 180 degree rule filmed and edited by 16th

Main Corsework Film Opening:

Everyone - Script

Katy - Costume design and examples of costume

Mariella - Actors and who we should consider casting

Mariella - Decisions on conventions

Katy - Age, Race and Class within WW2 films

Mariella - Codes and conventions of WW2 Films/Thrillers

Everyone but recorded by George - Storyboard for film

? - Shot list

George - Animation of storyboard

Aim for this all done by Jan 30th