Second shooting

On the weekend of the 27th-28th of February, we had our second shooting at the same location in Bianca's house. This was our main shoot and all the mistakes made in the test shoot and the new ideas that we came up with after it were all incorporated into this main shoot.

Our main changes were:

• Actress changes - Patricia now replaced Bianca and vice-versa as we thought that Patricia will fill the main role better with more emotion and looked the part, and that Bianca's voice was much better for the messages.
• Messages - The message from the mum was now replaced by a message from Jay, in the role of Patricia's boyfriend.
• The first message now happens further into the sequence as Patricia first puts her bags down, takes her coat of, gets a glass of wine and then goes to the phone for the first message. This means that they don't ramble on as much.
• The shot log needs to be taken properly and in full detail throughout filming.

Final Script

This is the final script after we decided to change our last message and change the dialogue that Patricia reacts to:

Message 1 - Boyfriend(Jay): Hey babe, I hope you had a goodnight out. I'm just checking if you're still on for tomorrow; I'll come pick you up at around 7.30, eight-ish. give me a call in the morning if you can. Bye!

Message 2 - Mandy(Bianca) - Hey Jade, i-it's me. I've been trying to get through to you all night but you're just not answering. Please give me a call as soon as you get this; I'm really, just really worried.

Message 3 - Mandy(Bianca) - Hi, it's me again. maybe I'm just being paranoid but.. I don't know I just feel like there's someone watching. Jade just please come, just - wait.. (long pause)  ..I think they know.

Character outfit and props

After looking at the character profile and understanding who our character is and what situation she is, this is the outfit Patricia will wear when we are filming.

It is a party outfit that a girl like our character would wear on a night out. She wil be wearing this with black high heels, a black coat (which she will take off during the sequence) and a black and gold bag.

This is the phone that we will be using.

New Timeline

Alterations to our timeline

In our current rough edit, we have the character opening the door, putting the keys and bag down, and then directly going to the answering machine to listen to her messages.
However, Ms Dymioti said that this should be altered and that rather than the character entering her house and going to the answering machine first, we have her put her bag and keys down, taking her coat off and then going to the kitchen to get a drink.
By doing this, this would also solve our problem of having a long message left by the character's mum. From previous posts, we have mentioned that we needed to shorten the duration of the mum's message and therefore, by making the character come to the answering machine later, we can have the mum's message be around 15/20 seconds.

New Actress

After looking at our rough cut and receiving feedback, we have decided as a group to change the actress and voice actors.

Patricia will now be the new actress, Bianca will be the voice of the friend and Jay will be the voice of the boyfriend.

Reflections

Things we noticed that went wrong:

- we left props in the background
- continuity issues where the match-on-action didn't flow.
- 30 degree rule - some shots were too similar so we had to cut in new shots to make it more continuous.
- unatural movements ( for example the shot where Bianca moves back against the radiator)
- pace is too slow
- not enough reactions to messages

Improvements for the weekend:

- be aware of rules of continuity when filming
- speed up the pace
- add in reactions to messages ( speak the messages through as filming)
-  we might screen test Patricia to be the actress and Bianca will do the voice-over as they will better suit these roles.
- make sure the shots are not tilted and make sure that they are parallel to the lines of the door.

TEACHER FEEDBACK
Ms. Dymioti
mother should be ringing for a reason, not just a random chat - reminding her of an event. much more functional rather than filling up space for no reason. mother's message is just too long.
hear friend first. mandy, mother and then mandy again.
improve more continuity. cutting off end of sequences. not enough details. doesn't need to put on answer phone so early. can put it on after she gets a drink. we're in control of dialogue instead of dialogue being in control of us.
take off earrings and jacket. check reflection in mirror. build up sense of character.
could record it on a mobile - would have the 'phone' effect.
the music is effective.
Mrs Blackborow
the mother's voice doesn't sound like how the audience would imagine her mother to sound.
the music shouldn't start until the 'scary' part starts - we should just have diegetic sound at the beginning, no music needed.

Feedback

After our previous feedback, we started to write our script for our voiceover and work out the timings in order for it to fit in.

We attatched a microphone to the computer and used the program Acid in order to record and edit our sound. We then experimented with the effects to try and make it sound like it had been pre recorded and was being played back on an answering machine.

We got some advice from Tom who told us to move further away from the microphone so we didnt have a big bass effect and he also suggested once we've got the sound on the computer, then we should record it again through the speakers to get that answering machine effect.

Once our sound had been recorded, we imported it into our video and put it in place on our timeline. We matched the reactions to what the recordings were saying.

Feedback

After our rough cut, we asked another group (Tom, Hugh and Tom) to watch our sequence and give us some feedback.

Initially, they were confused as we have not inserted the voice-over so they weren't sure what she was reacting to. However, once we explained it to them, they said they liked the idea and it should be effective once the messages are put in.

Also,they liked the first-person POV shot of Bianca going into her bag.

We also got feedback from our teacher, Mrs Dymioti and the media technician, Mr Deans.

She said that we should have scripted the messages and said it as Bianca was acting so that she would react at the right times. She said that the movement of the shots is fine but the choreography needs to be more natural (when she walks back to the radiator).



Mr Deans said that the shot of Bianca walking back was too long.

Editing Of Test Shoot Footage

During the editing session, we found various continuity errors that we can now correct in our actual shoot.

We found that the end of the sequence seems rushed and we didn't realise that we needed to film certain shots in order to allow the continuity to flow. We realised that we had missed out around three shots at the end which causes it to jump and look glitchy.

Also, the beginning of the sequence where Bianca is walking into the house, getting a drink of water takes a long time and we feel that it doesn't leave us enough time to insert the voice-over of the answering machine messages.

We used http://www.freeplaymusic.com/ to find music for our sequence.
http://www.freeplaymusic.com/search/category_search.php?t=v&i=1083

We liked the Dark Dimension Volume 3 album and felt that the song 'Evil Eyes' fit quite well with our sequence.

First Shooting

After our first test shoot, we managed to finish filming our opening sequence, taking us around 8 hours to complete.

 

Overall, we felt that we did relatively well however from this test shoot, there were a few problems which we came across. However, we now know how to avoid these issues hence making our next shoot run more smoothly and hopefully more successful.

 

Problems that we faced:

• Reflections of the camera and group windows slightly visible in the windows.
• Actress had very little emotion or reaction in the scene.
• No full shot log, which did slow editing down a little bit.
• Quality of the answering machine wasn't clear enough for the film.

How we are going to resolve them next time:

• Be aware of reflections of the camera and members of the group on shiny surfaces such as windows.
• Try and make the actress act more casual.
• Take a detailed shot log at the time of filming.
• Add voice-overs in after during editing.

Preparation for the shoot

Costume for young female adult

• High Heels
• "Night-out" outfit 
• Big jewellery (Hoops)
• Make-up

Props

• Answering machine
• Wine glass
• Wine bottle
• Bag
• Mobile phone 

Timeline

• Zoom in of an answering machine beeping – 3 seconds
• Zoom out + panning to Bianca opening door – 4 seconds
• Point of View of Bianca closing door – Close up – 3 seconds
• Close up of Bianca sighing – 1 second
• Long shot of Bianca putting bag on cupboard – 4 seconds
• Point of View of Bianca touching answering machine button – 2 second
• 180 turn of camera, so behind Bianca – camera stays in place as Bianca walks down to the kitchen. 6 seconds
• (Maybe insert a contra-zoom to be next to Bianca) – 3 seconds
• Side view of Bianca opening fridge door – 3 seconds
• In the fridge shot of Bianca getting a drink – 3 seconds
• Back to side view of Bianca closing fridge door – 3 seconds
• Long shot outside of fridge of Bianca going to cupboard to get a cup. – 5 seconds
• 180 turn to a shot outside of Bianca getting cup down – 4 seconds
• Long shot of kitchen of Bianca walking back near the fridge – 5 seconds
• Over the shoulder shot of Bianca pouring drink into cup and putting it down – 5 seconds
• Behind Bianca walking back to answering machine and pressing button – long shot – 5 seconds
• Close up Bianca taking off high heels and one earring – 6 seconds
• Long shot of Bianca going to bag and putting glass down– 5 seconds
• In the bag shot of Bianca rummaging to get her mobile phone, sees that it’s out of charge, puts it back – 7 seconds
• Long shot of Bianca picking up glass again – 3 seconds
• Close up side view of Bianca pressing button again – 3 seconds
• Extreme close up of Bianca reacting to message –3 seconds
• Long shot of Bianca holding glass – 2 second
• Tilt down following glass breaking –1 second
• Close up – slow motion of glass breaking – 4 seconds
• From the door point of view, Bianca turning around – 4 seconds
• Contra zoom to Bianca’s reaction – 3 seconds

Storyboard

This is the storyboard for our opening sequence.