Meeting 11

Members present: All
Topics discussed: Final locations

 

We had determined as a group that our final location shots were: the hut and a study room. However, we did go through a long process of decision as we had a lot of different ideas and we disagreed on locations a lot as a group. Beth was set on using the big oak tree for our final draft, whereas Lewis wanted to use a scenic walk way; I was unsure altogether as to where we should shoot it.

After travelling to each different location and performing on set to get a proper feel for how the scenes would work, we came across a place called 'the hut' - a beautiful and idealic little wooden hut in a scenic area; it seemed like the perfect place to shoot most of our scenes for our trailer.

We then had to come up with another location in which we would shoot the scene in which the female lead returns to school where the male lead is studying - it was a clear winner from the start as we all agreed on choosing a huge study room for this small scene.

 

We chose the hut as we felt it was a romantic and slightly childlike place, bringing together the childhood sweetheart aspect of our trailer together.
We chose the study room as it was a fairly large room and we invisioned it with a lot of people in, juxtaposing the delicate and secluded atmosphere of the hut - we felt it would also create a perfect situation for when Lewis, the male lead, would meet Ciara again, the female lead.

Meeting 10

Members present: Bethany Reilly, Lewis Robinson and Ciara Walton
Topics discussed: Film poster cover and magazine front cover
Actors present: Lewis Robinson and Ciara Walton
Directors/Photographers present: Bethany Reilly, Ciara Walton and Lewis Robinson

When it came to the point in our project where we had to start designing our film magazine covers and our film posters we had a fairly basic draft and idea of what we wanted to achieve, however as we were designing one each we wanted them to all be fairly different so we decided that it would be best for us to take some more photographs; although we were happy with the promo shots that we took of Lewis and myself together, we wanted them to be better quality and Lewis also had the idea of the magazine front cover being a 'premier special' - we then spent a day choosing clothing, make up and hair styling, as well as location, to make sure that these photographs would be the best they could.

We used my proffessional DSLR camera to take the photographs, as well as a tripod so to keep a steady hand and not produce a blurred image. We used a studio in which there was a blue carpet and a white back drop; this was to create the correct atmosphere and it would also block out any blemishes in the back ground, also making it easier for us to cut around the subjects using photo shop if needs be.

Beth was our photographer and we all played a part in directing the shoot; we used different techniques and settings on the camera to produce a wide range of images, giving ourselves a variety to choose from. We experimented with black and white settings but decided that it made the picture look to washed out and took away the overall composition of the image so we came to the conclusion that if we wanted a black and white element we would change it on Photoshop.

We acted as though Beth was a papparazi photographer and we were on the red carpet, so we analysed typical couple poses that celebrities do whilst on the red carpet for a premier - changing positions, making eye contact and physical contact, changing the angles and the physcial distance between ourselves and the photographer.
We used different camera shots including a close-up, portrait, side-on, landscape, horizontal, two-shot.

Equipment used: DSLR Canon EOS1000D camera and tripod
Location: Photography studio with a white backdrop
Techniques and shots used: Close-up, portrait, depth-of-field, landscape, horizontal.
Time taken: Approximately 4 and a half hours in total, including hair, make-up and styling.
Shots taken: 83

 

Meeting 9

Members present: Lewis Robinson, Bethany Reilly and Ciara Walton
Topics discussed: Scripted dialogue
Actors present: Ciara Walton, Lewis Robinson, Harry Craven and Niamh Kinsella
Directors present: Bethany Reilly, Ciara Walton and Lewis Robinson

As we had cast yougner actors for our film, we felt that it was necessary to script the dialogue that we wanted them to say as it was evident during the auditioning process that our actors worked better with scripts rather than through improvisation; we also decided to script the dialogue that myself and Lewis would say - after improvising throughout the first and second drafts we watched the tapes over and over as a team and decided upon the best lines and phrases to use during the argument and during other speaking elements.

Dialogue on Prezi

 

Meeting 8

Members present: Ciara Walton, Bethany Reilly and Lewis Robinson
Items Discussed: 1st, 2nd and final draft of filming and storyline
When editing our first draft we decided that we weren't going to use the younger actors in the storyline as we were still unsure as to whether or not it worked, however after we had finished editing we came to the conclusion that we were going to develop them into our second draft.
We completed our second draft and edited it - we were very pleased with how it had improved from our first draft, however we did feel that it could be better; therefore we changed certain aspects including our younger actors - we felt that they were to prone to acting up on set, so we decided to call back two other auditionees and give them the roles, this worked out for the better. We also decided that we were going to use the hut as our location for our final draft, instead of using the oak tree - this created a more intimate and delicate moment between teh younger couple and the characters when they grew older.
We have now finished and edited out second draft and have decided it was better for the storyline with the added elements included; we hope that when we go on to produce the final draft of our trailer that all of the elements coincide together and that our younger actors, whom will be different for the final draft, can pull it off.

The way we were first draft from Bethany Reilly on Vimeo.

Meeting 7

Members present: Lewis Robinson, Bethany Reilly and Ciara Walton
Actors present: Ciara Walton, Lewis Robinson, Daniel Watts and Keeley Ryan

Directors present: Bethany Reilly, Lewis Robinson and Ciara Walton
We started firstly by taking a few photos of our younger actors together; however due to the male actor acting out of character and messing around on set, all of the shots were unsuccessful and unusable. We weren't best pleased with how our young actors were working in the location of the big oak tree, therefore we decided to change location in which it wouldn't be so distracting; we also felt it wasn't childlike enough, the chosen location then became 'the hut'.
We then went onto filming – we re-shot some of the same scenes from our first draft of the two characters arguing, making sure to keep clothing and other aspects the same as previous; we did this as we wanted to show our younger actors the kind of relationship that we wanted them to have and we felt as a team that we had acted better on this occasion so we re-shot and merged our new footage with previous footage.
We then changed location to ‘the hut’ for our younger actors; we directed them on dialogue, eye-contact, proxemics and reactions between and towards one another. We did five different takes in which a two-shot was used, a single shot, and extreme close-up and a panning shot. The scene consisted of our younger actors talking about ‘big school’ and their friendship; the girl then gives the boy an object and walks away. We agreed as a group that we only needed the younger actors to establish a small part of the relationship but in a big and significant way and we felt that they achieved this for us.

Equipment used: Digital camera, Camcorder and Tripod
Shots and techniques used: extreme close-up, pan, two-shot and single-shot
Time Taken: 2 and a half hours in total.

Meeting 6

Members present: Lewis Robinson, Ciara Walton and Bethany Reilly
Actors present: Ciara Walton and Lewis Robinson
Directors present: Bethany Reilly, Lewis Robinson and Ciara Walton
We started filming our first draft on the same day that we did our promo shots as we didnt want to waste the time we had just spent building characters and chemistry together; we chose two different locations, both outside with a scenic background - the oak tree that we used during our promo photo shoot as it provided a significant and childlike aspect to it and then another more isolate location still including an oak tree to keep the childlike atmosphere.
The beginning clips were of me and Lewis walking in from behind either side of the camera and holding hands, walking into the distance. We felt that this provided a scenic and peaceful beginning to our trailer and could be used to establish the relationship of the girl and boy to the audience. We had to do two takes of this shot as Lewis accidentally slipped over during filming, however the second take ran smoothly and there was no need for us to re-shoot it a third time. The main filming started when we filmed an argument between the two characters; we used an establishing shot of Lewis to start and then what came was a series of shot/reverse shots between the two characters arguing and hugging. We had a scripted section of dialogue but as a director, Beth told us to loosen up and go with the flow and from that we improvised certain parts of the scenes and bounced of each other within takes, creating a more believable situation. We filmed the actors hugging as we wanted to establish the fact that they were being re-united, so to say, we then juxtaposed with an argument to show the dynamics of their relationship. As me and Lewis were the directors as well as Actors, we felt it was difficult to do both to a major extent so we left the major directing aspects to Beth and then we pitched in after we watched some of the footage back - this helped us develop better relationships as a group and to also establish to one another the certain things we liked and certain things we didnt. It also helped that we were directing ourselves as we knew what we wanted and how to achieve it. We then finished filming for the day with a tracking shot of Lewis walking away from the scene; establishing that he was unhappy with my character and foreshadowing that something more was to come of the story, hoping to keep the audience engaged within the trailer/film.
Equipment used: Camcorder and Tripod
Shots and techniques used: tracking shot, establishing shot, close-up, over-the-shoulder, shot/reverse shot and hand-held
Time Taken: 3 hours in total

Meeting 5

Members present: Ciara Walton, Lewis Robinson and Bethany Reilly
Actors present: Ciara Walton and Lewis Robinson
Directors present: Bethany Reilly, Ciara Walton and Lewis Robinson
On the first day of filming we decided to take a few promo shots with the digital camera of our characters together, to develop a better chemistry and also to help us get into character before filming our first draft. We used various different locations to take these images, which also helped with what locations we would use for our first draft filming.

The outcome of this activity highlighted the necessities and main aspects of our trailer that we needed to think about - taking these photographs helped us to develop better characters, establish a better relationship and chemistry and also helped us decide upon our final locations that we would use.

We used a simple digital camera to take these photographs as we had established that these photographs were only promo shots and we didn't rely on the fact that we would definatley use them; although the quality of the photographs were very good, we came to the conclusion that for our final poster and magazine cover we wanted better quality images, therefore we decided that we would use my DSLR Canon EOS1000D camera to take the photographs, to make sure we would get the best photos that we possibly could.

We used four different locations so to make sure that we were completley positive in our final location choices, these included - a huge oak tree; we wanted to create a significant place that had a childhood aspect to it and we felt a huge oak tree could be the foundation for the relationship that we wanted to be present in our trailer, an empty field; we felt that a simple field could be a perfect location, juxtaposing the delicate and complex relationship of our characters, a small pond; we experimented with this location simply because it was a very beautiful and delicate location and created a background for our characters, however we did feel that it could be to 'crowded' with all of the scenery, and finally the woods; we thought about using a slightly less romantic location but as we worked around it and experimented with different shots we felt the location was far to juxtaposed for our storyline.
We experimented with different angles and shots when taking these photographs, including the standard close-up portrait shot; doing this allowed us to gain an understanding of what angles and what techniques qould produce the best shots for our final images.

Equipment used: Digital Camera
Techniques and shots used: Close-up, portrait, depth-of-field
Time taken: 1 hour and 40 minutes
Shots taken: 45