Filming Sunday 23rd January 2011

We filmed our final scene on Sunday at Adeel's house for the bathroom scene, which is where it is revealed that his friends are in fact just imaginary and that he is just crazy. We chose Adeel's house because he had the perfect space that we needed in order to shoot the scene.

In order to convey the characters as being more crazy than he is, we changed their appearance slightly so that it looked like they were messing about in the bathroom, such as Maurice having shampoo on his head and Parham's collar being messy.

We used a variety of shots here, such a 360 panning shot where it's first revealed that his friends do not exist. We also used another trick with the mirror, which had Alex staring into it with his friends but when the camera tillts back at the mirror they were gone. While the overall filming did go well, some small problems did still occur.

• The bathroom was quite small so filming in there was sometimes hard. This was because the actors had to be in a variety of positions like standing next to each other in the mirror scene. It was also hard at times to find a place to stand when filming as it was very cramped.
• Another problem was that there were quite a few mirrors in the bathroom so filming some shots was a challenge as we had to make sure the camera or crew could not be seen. This was particularly hard in the 360 shot. 
• Initially the lighting was changing on the camera so that it appeared to be flickering, however after changing the lighting in the bathroom that problem stopped occuring.

Group Questions & Test Screening

On Wednesday 14th December we had a test screening of our film. This was displayed in front of the class, which consisted with a short unfinished scene of our film. A questionnaire was handed to everyone in the room who was watching our footage which is shown below:

Favourite thing about the scene?

The most popular answer was that the overall pace of the scene seemed good. Other answers were the cuts, the opening of the scene, and a good mixture of shots with the music.

Least favourite thing?

Most people said that it was a bit too short, although we are working on making it longer. Also someone didn't like the extra-diagetic gaze of the characters, and that the introduction felt too 'classic'.

Natural cuts/shots?

The majority of people thought that the shots flowed well and they didn't feel too abrupt, which is what we wanted as they had to be in sync with the non-diagetic music in the scene.

Film areas results

The most common results for each aspect of our film out of five were:

Sound - 5                    Lighting - 5

Characters - 4            Setting - 4

Camera Angles - 4       Editing - 5

What should be improved?

The most common answer that almost everybody mentioned was that it should be longer as the footage that we showed them was only about ten seconds. We are planning on making it longer by adding more shots to fit in with the music.

What's the genre?

Most people thought that it felt like a comedy, although other answers were drama and social realism. We planned for the genre to be drama. Most people probably thought it was comedy because of the bold mixture of characters and the light-hearted music on the scene.

Overall, we mostly got positive feedback from the class. The main criticism was that it was too short, although it was mainly due to the fact that we did not film a lot and could not do much with the footage that we had at the moment. Some people also said that it felt comedic on it's own, but when the film is finished it should look more normal and appear to fit in more with the storyline.

Filming Monday 29th November 2010

On Monday we began filming. We started with the scene of the four friends walking down the road before they meet Nathan across the road. We did not need to use any of the sound equipment at this stage as we would be using non-diagetic music for the walking scene. We initially filmed on Friday but it got too dark too early, which meant that things were not visible on the camera and there would also be continuity errors with the daylight.

We got a large mixture of shots in such as a side tracking shot of them walking together and a ground angle of them walking towards the camera. and in total we spent around two hours rehearsing and shooting the scene. If we were to improve anything, it would be to film a bit more footage so that we could experiment with more shots and see what is best.
  
Our street location                       

We filmed on this road as it was quiet and has a lot of space which was perfect for the scene. There wasn't many cars passing or people in the way of our shots. However there might be future problems involving continuity if we film here later on, as the cars would be in different positions and also there might still be ice or snow in the background.

Rehearsal of the walking scene

Shot List

In order to make our film look good, I created a shot list which contained brief information on what each shot looked like and what scene it was from. I based this off the animatic and we will refer back to the sheet and the animatic during the filming of our film so that we can make it look how we imagined.

I made it very brief and not too detailed incase any problems occured such as if we had to film in a different setting or if we use different actors instead. The shot list is very similar to our storyboard except the fact that there is no visual images, but it is instead much more descriptive.

Music

For the non-diagetic music in our film, Aidah and I searched for copyrighted music which would be suitable for certain scenes in our film .

The opening cafe scene - The music here will be upbeat and quite gentle, which signifies the positive friendship between the characters while they are in a friendly environment. There could be generic soft rock music or typical pop music.

The street scene - When the characters are all walking down the road after the cafe, the music will be a bit louder and also more cheerful which again represents the togetherness with them walking and interacting with each other. It could be more louder rock music while still being fairly calm so it's still happy.

The house scene - Techno/Hip Hop sounding music will play in the background as diagetic music which makes it feel more like teenagers going out to get ready for the party and it will suit the intimidating masculinity of the scene. It will sound noticeable more darker which shows the change of the character's personality but also the time of day.

Typical video game music will be used as well with the quick shot of Tyreece as he plays a video game. I was thinking of using normal 8-bit music which helps to immediately code to the audience of what he is doing. This like the other music in the house will be diagetic, or part of the scene.

The end shot - For the last few shots of the film when he finds out he is in fact isolated, disturbing music will build up from this scene and slowly get louder to raise the tension. We wanted it to sound intimidating so we were thinking of using choral music to make it scary, or use tense orchestra music.

Genre Research-Drama

Our short film is going to be a genre-based one which will be drama. We thought that doing drama will be good as it focuses on emotional characters and the situations which they come across.


Drama is mostly based on realism within the world. This could deal with everyday character struggles and are can usually cover a negative portrayal of today's society. But how is ours a film drama, and not a thriller or even a comedy? This is because we do not have any humorous parts, or moments where we want the audience to feel frightened. There are no special effects used in our film as we are aiming purely for realism.


Some famous drama films are the Shawshank Redemption which is about a banker's struggles throughout his two decades in prison, Brokeback Mountain which is about a relationship between two men, Wall Street and Slumdog Millionaire which is a romance with dramatic elements in it. The similarities between all of these films is that they are all about struggles within either a society or a small group of people. Our film is going to be about a problem within one person only. 

Film Idea & Inspirations

We have finally decided on our idea. It's going to be about a teenager who at first appears to be yet another average boy living in London. He is reasonably popular which is shown by his three friends who are constantly surrounding him throughout the film. However, we then find out through flashbacks towards the end that these people aren't real, but instead are completely imaginary. It's going to be ambiguous to the audience so there's no exposition of why he sees/imagines these people. Possible reasons could be:

• Multiple Personality Disorder
• Schizophrenia
• His conscious thoughts

One of the main influences for our film is Inside directed by Trevor Sands. This short film is about a man who has a multiple personality disorder which is represented by various actors surrounding him. As they speak, he speaks along with them which is the film's way of showing his disorder to the audience. The twist is then revealed; a psychiatrist who was first thought to be a real person is then revealed as another character in his head. We liked the idea of those people surrounding the character.

Another influence was Fight Club starring Edward Norton & Brad Pitt. All the way through the film Norton is shown engaging with Pitt such as fighting with him in the street and arguing with him, however after a series of flashbacks from a different perspective we realise that he's actually shouting and beating up himself due to his insomnia causing these imaginations. Although the reasoning behind his imagination is different in this film to ours, we still think that it's similar to ours as we want to show same events from a diffferent point of view.