Today was the day we first started filming. We were feeling rather confident after our preliminary task which we done in October but the mistakes and problems that we encountered then helped us gain the experience when filming this. For example in the preliminary task, we had failed to abide to the 180 degree rule where Mohammed looked as if he suddenly switched positions. Now we are being extra careful whilst filming.
Today, we decided to start filming the end of our opening two minutes where Aran receives a phone call for his next mission. We started with the ending because the rest of the filming had to be at night and we were all available during the day so we could at least make a start. Filming itself only took about an hour for this specific section but costume was as important today as we needed to make sure Aran's character didn't giveaway too many clues so we decided to dress him in all black. Our location for the ending of our two minutes was on a bridge located in Leatherhead over the M25. Aran was the only one needed in this scene where he received a phone call giving him his next target. We used a number of shots including close-ups, extreme close-ups and medium shots as well as long shots. The reason for this is because we want to have that element of choice when editing where we can see which shots better as opposed to having one standard shot. We also used the bridge to our strength as we ended it when the camera was overlooking the bridge. Aran was dressed in a casual hoodie and chinos as you must remember that this is the end of the movie but for the rest of the movie, he is dressed in all black.
 |
| Here is a picture of the bridge at the time of filming overlooking the M25. |
What today was also used for was getting grips with the camcorder which Mohammed had acquired. The good thing about this camcorder was that it has a specific feature called anti-shake which reduces the amount the camera shakes but we will find out whether this is an effective process during the editing stage in a few weeks. We do have a trigram but thanks to the anti-shake, we didn't really have any use for it but we may need it when we actually begin filming the action scenes.
 |
| This is the camcorder we used which also had HD as well as anti-shake. |
My input today was to get all the costumes and props prepared for the others to film. For example, I had the fake blood ready which I gave to Mohamad and I instructed Aran to wear all black. Prior to the filming , I quickly went to the location(which can be seen below) and checked whether it was still in the same state that we left it when we first decided that it would be our chosen location. One prop that none of our group could get hold of was a fake gun although we got extremely close. Despite this, the fake blood was still a good prop.
Today we actually filmed the chase and fight scene where Tom was the victim. Instead of the gun, we replaced it with a knife which Mohamad got from his house that had a yellow handle. It worked as well as a gun would have but in hindsight possibly even better because our movie is an urban action movie and a knife may be more suitable for this. We would put the red food colouring in a small capsule which Tom would have to bite but they told me that a problem was that they would have to continue the acting with the remains of the capsule in Toms mouth and it wasn't comfortable so we had a contingency plan which was to use a syringe which hopefully will work as well as a capsule. Today, we just done the fight scene in the alleyway where Aran punched Tom and that is where Tom spits out the blood.
15/1/13
Today we filmed a big chunk of the movie. Mohamad bought his laptop where he had already started the editing of the ending and the "punch" scene. As they were filming, I was continuing with the editing but all I could do was small bits and bobs but we still cant make any major alterations because we don't have enough clips so the real editing will begin after the filming but I could still help by fixing the small shakes that are visible though Mohamad has been doing an excellent job of editing as well. We also got the mixture of soundtracks that we were going to use and where. I starting putting the sound into the bits we had filmed as it finally felt as if it was taking shape.
We got Tom to wear Jeans and a hoodie to show that he was the victim and wasn't expecting this fight whereas Aran was wearing all black which I stated in my earlier blogger wouldn't give much away about his character.
Today's filming began with Tom limping very fast to show that he had already been hurt into this water-fields alleyway where he was being chased by Aran. The shot type we used was a point of view shot which really emphasized the idea that Tom was running away from someone. There was a number of shots during the actual fight part of the scene where the main intention was to give Aran as much prevalence as possible in order for the audience to identify him as the main character. The good thing about Tom and Aran is that Aran is significantly taller which made our job much easier in giving him this prevalence. We also see Aran punch Tom where he then falls on the ground and tries to recover using the walls of the walkway as leverage.
22/1/13
It has been a full week since we have filmed because it has been difficult gathering everyone together. I have noticed that a lot of groups finished in a day but we want to take our time in order to get it perfect. Moreover, I can't really talk about the camera shots that we are going to use as we have used a number of shots and angles and will later decide which shot is best.
Mohamad once again bought his laptop where I was editing whilst he was filming the death of Toms character. As we didn't have a gun, Aran used a knife to kill Tom against the white wall of the walkway. As soon as Aran kills Tom, he receive a phone call which we had to shoot a number of times as we kept going over the 180 degree rule for some reason and f because we wanted to see what would be the most effective shot.
It has taken us seventeen days but we have finally finished our filming and now we still have a lot of editing to do because of the vast array of shots we took.
We still haven't thought of the title and time is running out so we must really think. I will be able to edit everything apart from the beginning without the title.
Editing stage.
28/1/13
Today we fully focus on the editing. As Tom and Aran were the main actors in the fiming, we had decided to give them the day of as we made a start on the editing. The first thing we had to think about was the title and where we were going to put it. We decided that a title should be named when all four of us is togethet and that we would place it straight after the death of Tom and the next day as this will help the audience identify that it's a new day and the movie officially starts from this point.
We started the beginning of the editing where Tom was running and the camera was in between his eyes to show the audience that they are currently viewing the event in Toms perspective. We decided to add an effect which was to make the camera blurry. the reason for this was to show that he was in distress, to add suspence and most importantly to dictate a high tempo to the scene ad indicate to the audience that an action scene is currently occurring.
The next thing we done today was edit the fight scene and we started by choosing which shot type we wanted when Aran first saw Tom and we decided that we'd go with the over the shoulder shot as it made the way that Aran was running more dramatic. When Tom got hit, we thought that a good effect to include is an x-ray type effect, This would show that Tom was hurt which gave us the excuse to use the fake blood when Tom spat it out. We decided to have a medium shot for this so the blood would be visible.
Mohamad once again bought his laptop where I was editing whilst he was filming the death of Toms character. As we didn't have a gun, Aran used a knife to kill Tom against the white wall of the walkway. As soon as Aran kills Tom, he receive a phone call which we had to shoot a number of times as we kept going over the 180 degree rule for some reason and f because we wanted to see what would be the most effective shot.
It has taken us seventeen days but we have finally finished our filming and now we still have a lot of editing to do because of the vast array of shots we took.
We still haven't thought of the title and time is running out so we must really think. I will be able to edit everything apart from the beginning without the title.
Editing stage.
28/1/13
Today we fully focus on the editing. As Tom and Aran were the main actors in the fiming, we had decided to give them the day of as we made a start on the editing. The first thing we had to think about was the title and where we were going to put it. We decided that a title should be named when all four of us is togethet and that we would place it straight after the death of Tom and the next day as this will help the audience identify that it's a new day and the movie officially starts from this point.
We started the beginning of the editing where Tom was running and the camera was in between his eyes to show the audience that they are currently viewing the event in Toms perspective. We decided to add an effect which was to make the camera blurry. the reason for this was to show that he was in distress, to add suspence and most importantly to dictate a high tempo to the scene ad indicate to the audience that an action scene is currently occurring.
 |
| Here is the blurry picture when Tom is running to the alleyway. |
Today was rather successfull as we have edited around 56 seconds of filming in one day, I thought it would be much harder but we must also focus on the non diegetic sound. The final piece of editing we had dome today was the extreme close up of the clean knife which followed with a black screen and then the knife will reappear with blood on it.
 |
| We start on the left where there is a clean knife, then black screen (dramatic cut) and then the dirty knife.
31/1/13
Today we continued with the editing. We were all here today and all worked hard. Today we once again added the x-ray effect on the knife to emphasis the death just like we emphasized Tom being hurt, We have found it to be a rather effective effect. What else we done today was film the conversation between Aran and his boss where he says "Job Done" we chose to do close ups and extreme close ups as we didn;t really want to give any facial expressions away. We only had time to do this much but it sets us up nicely to complete it within the next two weeks.
|
 |
| Here is a screenshot of the x-ray knife |
Today we have finally decide the title to be The pursuer and the reason for this title is in another blog. We included it after Aran killed Tom because it would slow down the pace of the film and to show the end of the action scene with the transition to the next day. We decided to fade the title away into the next day as my research into film shot types told me that fades can indicate time jumps so it was a good place to include a fade shot. Today we also put the the ending in which I had edited a couple of weeks ago. The film is starting to feel finished and we are on time even though other groups have finished.
Filming :
7/2/13
It's been 3 days since we've finished the editing of the filming and we aren't happy with it so we re filmed the ending again today. I believe that this could have been because we filmed it first and we didn't know how the rest of the filming would pay off and so it was a gamble that didn't pay off.
We were supposed to include the music today but we couldn't because of the re filming but we are still on track to finish within the next 2-3 days.
Editing
9/2/13
Today was the longest day by far but we have finally finished the filming and editing. The peoduction of the sound took a number of hours and then implementing it in the movie took as long. Before all of that we had to edit the end once again but it didn't take too long this time as we knew what we wanted.
We then started in the production of the sound and the softwear we used was Traktor 2, Mix Meister and Fusion 7. Mohamad was familiar with the programme so that saved some time but we were being very specific adding extra strings and basses in specific areas. All the music we used was non-copyright with some of our own original sounds.
Traktor 2:
MP3 Direct Cut:
Mix Meister Fusion 7:
Finished Project.
This is the finished product of our opening two minutes of our movie.
No comments:
Post a Comment