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

Casting

Successful castings:
Niamh Kinsella – when Niamh auditioned for the role we were hesitant as to how she would perform in the role of a serious character as she is well known for her comedy status and roles within the film industry and almost all of her major film roles involve a comedy aspect; however we were very surprised as to how dedicated and commited she became to the part straight away - she engaged herself within in the role of the character easily and also developed certain trates of her own to add towards the character. Niamh was very confident within herself and embedded this within her character, she had a clear voice and her diction was perfect when asked to recite some of the chosen dialogue. The main aspect that stood out about Niamh was her ability to work well with other actors - she produced amazing chemistry with both actors going up for the main role; Niamh made it an easy decision for us when choosing our female young actor lead role.

Harry Craven – although Harry isn't as much of a well known actor as our other auditionees he became a clear contender form the start; he was punctual to his audition, unlike some of the other more professional actors, he was very good and very quick at getting into character - providing various different scenes for us to work with. The main aspect that stood out about Harry was his ability to take direction extremely well from all three members of our group; he took direction from three different directors with three different views and was able to commit and produce various excellent scenes for each of us, helping us to develop a final scene together. Harry had amazing chemistry with all actors on set, especially Niamh Kinsella, our favoured female young actor.
After an in-depth discussion within the group and a 'trial run-through' of our trailer, we decided that we would use the male member of our group, Lewis Robinson, as the male lead in our trailer; we used our 'trial run-through' as simply a basis to decide the story line, plot and dialogue that would be featured in our trailer and we felt the easiest way to do this was to use Lewis and myself, Ciara Walton, as the lead roles - however we didnt anticipate that the chemistry between the two of us would be so good and after being let down so many times with previous films, we came to the conlusion as a group that the best possible solution for our film would be to use the two of us, Lewis and Ciara, as the male and female lead roles within our film. Due to time schedules for other actors and constantly being let down, we decided to attempt it on our first draft and the aesthetics of myself and Lewis together was appealing and the chemistry was very noticeable. So with the help of Beth our director, we decided to remain as the roles.We felt that the fact we were in a group together added to our chemistry, commitment and reliability; it was also easier to take direction and constructive criticism from Beth, our director. It also gave us the opportunity to direct ourselves when looking back at takes and filming, however; we did decide to audition other male and female actors, including the last member of our group Bethany Reilly, to make sure that we were making the best decision for our film trailer. Overall we came to the conclusion that Lewis and myself were best suited to the roles and I will explain in an unbiased opinion below stating the reasons of why we were successful and why other auditionees were unsuccessful.

Lewis Robinson - after doing a brief 5 minute filming session with Lewis, we were pleasantly surprised as to how well he adapted to the role of an actor as his usual proffession is dedicated to the behind-the-scenes work of a film. Lewis was punctual, reliable and a pleasure to work with; he understood the needs of the director and was able to work well with any actor we presented him with, even the younger actors which most other auditionees struggled with. When faced with the decision of capturing the right angles and getting the best location and lighting, Lewis was on board and happy to lend a hand within the directing aspect - he stayed hesistant enough and let us as directors do the main decisions but as he is one of our co-directors, we were happy when he lended a hand and gave a contribution. When we gave Lewis a section of dialogue to learn he was able to adapt and produce a character within minutes; giving us a different perspective on the story line altogether - allowing us to create more in-depth characters. The main aspect that confirmed Lewis' place within the film was his amazing chemistry and likeable disposition; overall, Lewis was a clear choice from the start.

Ciara Walton - Ciara arrived on set with a happy disposition and this continued throughout the audtioning process, she was willing and able from the out set and provided a unique approach to the character. When asked to perform a section of dialogue with other actors she was more than willing and created different and likeable chemistry with all other auditionees; she coped well under pressure and was one of the best of the day when working with the younger actors. Ciara was punctual and always arrived on set with a positive attitude - being part of the group and one of the directors, she was also able to contribute to that factor of the trailer and apply different skills within the proxemics and vocal range of the actors within the trailer. Overall, it was a clear decision from the start that Ciara would be our chosen lead actress for our trailer.

Unsuccessful castings:
Daniel Watts – we were unhappy with Daniel from the outset as he turned up over an hour late to set, and when we questioned him and stated that this was his audition and we weren't going to just hand him the role, he became very defensive and moody; after finally agreeing to audition against other actors, Daniel wouldn't take the role seriously and was prone to acting up and joking about on set - trying to get the other actors in trouble, possibly trying to sabotage their chances. We felt that, due to his previous roles in various major films, Daniel was a very good actor; however it was his ego and non committment to the part that let him down.

Keeley Ryan – a very unexperienced young actor, however we felt Keeley could pull it out of the bag, just as Harry had, but she lacked in the confidence department and just wasn't good enough for the role when compared to other actors. Another aspect that steered us away from Keeley was the fact that she let her confidence get in the way of developing chemistry with the other male actors - she was very immature when it came to co-acting; we decided to use Keeley for our second draft alongside Daniel but we felt they just weren't good enough for the final film.

Aisling Byrne - at the start of the auditoning process we were very excited to have Aisling on set and she soon became the 'life of the party' so to say, however after a couple of call backs she became negative towards most aspects and didnt agree on many decisions that we were asking her to do - after two days Aislings attitude became unsatisfactory and her tardyness became a huge issue; other auditonees were having to wait hours before Aisling arrived on set. The positive aspects of Aislings audition was the chemistry she provided towards other cast members and the short time it took her to learn the dialogue we had provided, however, although we were close to seriously considering Aisling for the role, we decided as a team that she would be to unreliable to hire.

Niall Moore - when Niall came to us for his first audition for the lead role we were very positive that he would be able to deliver; he surprised us in many ways and was very good at character developing. He fast became one of our favourites and made it to the final stages of auditions for the lead role, however, althought Niall was very impressive and had amazing actor credentials we felt that he had just been beat to the post by one of our other actors. Instead of completley losing Niall, we decided to use his talent to add in the character of 'boyfriend' - we created the role of 'boyfriend' purely for Niall as we didnt want to lose him and we were very aware as to the amount of effort, time and committment he put into landing the lead role. We cast Niall for the first draft of our trailer and he worked exceptionally well with all the other actors, building great chemistry; however he did turn up on set very tired and it made us reconsider the presumption that Niall may be a very big socialite - after talking to Niall and understanding that he did tend to go out most nights and would usually come into work very tired, we were hesitant on whether or not to keep him on for the second and final draft of our trailer. We are still undecided on whether or not we are going to keep Niall on but for the most part he was a delight to work with.

Jack Dooge-Johnson - we were very pleased to hear that Jack D-J would be auditioning for the lead male role as he is such a big 'of the moment' Hollywood star, however, we were very dissapointed to witness how the height of Jack's fame had really gone to his head - he turned up over 45 minutes late to set, didn't agree with the dialogue he was given and asked for it to be either changed slightly or completley re-written for his benefit, he was completley un-ready for the tasks and trials of the auditioning process as he came dressed as though he had just gotten out of bed and threw on a pair of sunglasses; which he never took off, adding to his rude manner. Jack was rude to all 3 directors throughout the entire day and the only reason we tolerated his un-called for behaviour throughout the day was because of his recent big acting jobs. Jack didn't even make it through the first stage of auditions and we regret his audition altogether.

Bethany Reilly - we were quite hesitant as to how Bethany would react on set and whether or not she would be able to commit completley to a more serious role, as we discovered before the auditioning process that she is well known for her comedy roles and hasnt ever really done a serious romantic film - as much as we hate to say it, as she was a lovely person and a joy to work with, Bethany wasn't suited for the female lead role at all; she was unable to adapt to the character and when she wasnt the centre of attention she was prone to acting up on set. She thre tantrums if the attention wasnt based solely on her and she tried to inject and unwanted comedy aspect to the film; her constant joking and comedic traits on set was the final reason why she didn't make it to the second stages of auditions. Although Bethany was a lovely girl with a happy disposition, we felt she was to 'comedy' for our particular film trailer, however we wish her all the best in the future.