Filming our project.

We encountered a lot of problems including problems with locations, actors and when we are going to film. We overcame these issues and successfully filmed our project.
We filmed in Durham next to the riverside and Silver Street.
In the end our final actors were Alex Toes as the girl from the 50's, Mariella, James Stevenson as the murderer and me as the girl who finds Mariella, Samantha.
Whilst we were filming in Silver Street, there was work going on round about the statue so we could hear drilling in the background. If this affects our footage too badly we will record the dialogue again and put it over the top of our footage.
Whilst we were filming, instead of stopping the camera if a mistake was made we just kept filming and tried again so we have a lot of cutting to do and in the editing process we will be careful to not delete any of the clips as I made the mistake of deleting ones we needed when we were creating our continuity task video. Another mistake we made was cutting the videos too much so even though only a second was cut out of some of the videos it was more than likely a second of footage that we needed. We will be careful to not do any of this for our final video. For another one of our projects we filmed our footage but did not leave enough time in between shots for editing or cutting so we have made sure that we left enough time before the footage starts to edit properly, add any effects that we need and cut properly.
We have taken great care to make sure that our film will run smoothly and will start the editing process to produce our rough draft very shortly.

Extra research

Today me and Hannah have been studying projects from past pupils. We have looked at what kind of editing they used and what they have done to create certain effects. We have looked at errors and what we need to gain the highest possible grade we can get. We have found that in past projects, black and white has been mixed in with colour to show fear and create tension which is what we want to use in our project. We have looked at how the projects present fear and confusion and have taken note of these things so we can adapt these techniques into our own project.

Problems and solutions

So far ….

So far we have came across a number of problems related to filming. Our main actress, Emma Dixon, dropped out 2 minutes before filming so we had to spend a lot of time stressing and finding new actors. We found two actors to play mariella and the murderer. Mariella will be played by my friend, Alex Toes, the murderer will be played by my friend James Stevenson and Hannah Taylor will still play Samantha. (Alex and James travelled from Darlington just to help us. We love them.)

We are still filming next to the riverside and in the market place but have had to change the date we are filming because of the mix up with actors. There were a lot of people on the bridge when we finally got round to filming the scenes on the bridge so we will try and find a day when it is quieter and there are not as many people about as there was only one person that acknowledged us and actually stopped.

We also had very little luck with the timing. We chose to film on the one Sunday of the month there was a derby match on. This meant that Durham was full of drunks who probably thought the camera was after them. We were scared for Alex's safety (due to her height.... or even lack of) near all the drunks so we chose to stay away and go back when we didn't think she was going to get stabbed.

We encoutered a lot of problems with lighting as we only really had an hour of light by the time we got round to filming so we only really managed to film the first few clips. We need to film in the daylight so we can show the contrast between the black and white scenes and the colour scenes. Because of this, we need to film during the day so we are going to get our actors together on a day that we are all free.

Cast and Crew so far
Rachel Mole - camera, production
Hannah Taylor - actress, production
Alex Toes - actress
James Stevenson - actor
Edward Fawcett - music

This is the first edit of our production logo

Our Film So Far

So far …

So far we have made a story board, script and have figured out that our main actor will be Emma Dixon. Hannah will act in it as well as the girl who looks after our main character. We have decided where we are going to film and have made a start on the script so we have a clear plan what we are doing. 

Actors
Mariella – Emma Dixon
She is the girl that is teleported from the 50’s to 2011. She is being chased by a murderer and passes through a teleport which sends her into the future.

Samantha – Hannah Taylor
She finds Mariella and convinces her that she is going to help her. She convinces her that she is going to look after her and help her get back home but later on the audience learn that she is up to something sinister.

For Mariella’s make up, it will be kept simple with eyeliner on top of the eyes red lips and we will use eyeliner pencil to make her eyebrows bolder. Her hair will be curled in a way that looks very fifties to make her stand out from the rest of the characters. She will be wearing fifties styles clothes that are very different from the other characters clothes. Samantha’s clothing will be modern and her hair will be straightened to show the contrast between her and Mariella.

Me, Hannah and Emma will all be operating the camera at some point. There is a shot where Mariella is running and there is a close up of her face. To do this effectively, Emma will hold the camera herself similar to the effect in the “Blair Witch Project.” This will show Mariella’s fear and desperation.

Location

We are shooting our film in Durham city. Part of it will be filmed in the city centre and part of it will be filmed in the market place. All the shops have bright lights and modern signs which would be completely unheard of in the 50’s so Mariella’s reaction to all of these things is important when it comes to showing that she is in a time that is not familiar to her. The river side is important as that hasn’t really changed through time so we can easily make it look like it’s in the 50’s by simply making the riverside scene’s black and white. The shops, market place and general city centre however is normally full of cars and building works and LED lights so we can make these scenes full of colour easily so the contrast between the two can be obvious.

Filming times

We are filming in Durham on the 16^th of January. This is a Sunday so we can ensure there won’t be many people around anyway and we will start filming early in the morning so we can avoid any crowds that might be there during the day. The river side is normally deserted even at the busiest of times but Sunday mornings are the perfect time to go as there will be nobody there at all. The shops all open later on a Sunday so we have plenty of time before crowds start gathering. Durham is usually quiet on a Sunday so filming people we don’t need can easily be avoided and the camera will be safer than if we were filming on a Saturday when a lot of youngsters are in the city.

Music

For our music, we are going to let Edward Fawcett watch the film first and compose some dramatic music using acoustic and/or electric guitars. This will add to the tension and the dramatic effect and any copyright laws would be avoided as the music will be Edwards’s piece and not a copied piece. We are going to do this last as then we can film the sequence we need then let Edward watch it and come up with music that is appropriate for our sequence.