Day 4 - another day re filming pub scene

DAY 4 - another day re filming pub scene

We went back to make changes to what the audience said. we designed some shots before hand of how we think it would make it clear that the barman's involvement and how to further increase the knowledge, seriousness and organisation of the hero. These were;

• A shot of our hero at a desk watching CCTV footage of the bar and the gang threatening the barman in the CCTV footage, this meant we had to also shoot some high shoots in corner of the bar of activity to be turned into the CCTV footage.
• A shot of the hero entering and sitting down in the corner but with a hood and coat to hide his identity.
• Shot of the barman being threatened as the gang enters with the victim

These few extra shots opened up the audiences knowledge of what is going on in the story.

We also had to re-film a shot where one of the actors smiles and it just looked bad because of that.

We turned up on time and the pub was clear and no disturbances. this means we could work to schedule. the producer had a lot of control over his crew and organised set up for the order of shots we were going to film. We again had limited time with one of our actors so got to shooting theirs first. It meant shooting completely out of order. we used the previous footage that we were keeping to keep continuity from the last time we were there. as we shot it, we had a few bad moments were actors went wrong but it was all good to get the shots in in the end. We got the extra one's shot easily and precisely and they were good as they were not very long.

We re-filmed the shot were we noticed a laugh and adapted it slightly to make it a bit more dramatic and involve a shot reverse shot we had previously missed. In the end we put them on the laptop and put a brief draft together to see a overall picture and thought it looked much better.

We then went back to school and used a drama room with a spot light to shoot the desk shot, we used a match on action here as we knew it would look good if the hero was watching it, but then it would switch to the actual footage. So we used a clip and decided the right transition would make that flow a lot better than just a straight cheap cut. So we were thinking about editing it before we got to that. Hopefully will allow for a better overall product in the end.

Day 3 - re filming

DAY 3 - re filming pub scenes

After seeing we needed to improve our pub shots we went back again. this time we turned up and the pub had people in it, this was not expected and kinda made the whole day a lot more difficult with distractions and interruptions. builders were on site, we were not informed of it all and well caught us by surprise. but we continued we adapted the order in which we were going to shoot. due to us having an actor that was only available for one hour. we started off with his shots. the lighting was good and we managed to keep continuity even though there was a massive problem with things everywhere!! we managed to avoid it. luckily none of our shots involved sound, so the background noise that came from the people working all around the pub was fine, we carried on around them. We all set up the rest after shooting our actors shots and moved on to our own and focused on speeding them up. our film was just too short with little going on, so on each piece of action we involved and designed another 3 shots for that piece. this allowed us to keep the action flowing and make it seem as if it had been sped up but really it was all the same shots. Once we filmed them we put a brief edit together to check that it speed up more and worked more accurately. the shots looked good and flowed more than before. this allowed the section that was slow to be more action and exciting rather than boring and slow. With all of our shooting done and moving around the pub according to where the people were working it looked impressive. we were very happy with how we adapted to the building going on around us and the adaptations we made to the film.

Day 2 - filming

DAY 2 of filming opening credits

We turned up on time at the set of the pub. the set was brilliant and very easy to set up. within a few minutes we were ready for our first few shots. all seemed to flow very well and the scenery was great. we even adapted some things to make use of the scenery and have the modern mixed with the old style with the beer taps and whiskey on a wooden bar.

Mirrors and space were an issue. there was not much room around the bar so we couldn't get as wide as we would of liked due to there being a wall in the way. But working around it we managed to get our shots and they looked relatively good. other issues were movement. Often our shots slide up and across. this was a massive issue as it was just so wobbly. We needed something that could let us move but not use our legs. Next time we are looking to use a skateboard or a trolly to be able to be able keep up with the character and not be wobbling the whole time. to counter that we added in an additional shot. This made us able to film a small bit without having to move as much then break into a stiller shot, then back to the moving one. This broke it up and made it a lot faster and cut out wobbles.

We filmed all of our scenes and packed up. Once we loaded them up to the laptop we found it was all just way too dark. So we are having to go back and re film. We made a small draft edited version of what we had and it was all too slow. When we go back to re-film we are going to add extra shots and move the shots between a lot quicker to liven things up a bit. It was just too plain slow and boring, everything happened slowly and didn't engage in what a western viewer would want from the opening which is action based and builds suspense.

Costumes looked perfect for the baddies. But the next day will also include the barman's shots and extra bits and pieces we need to speed up the whole opening and plan on where the stills for each characters credit will be when it comes onto their shot which we didn't plan ahead enough for.

Day 1 - Filming

DAY 1 of Filming the opening credits

DAY 1, Underpass – Milton Keynes. 
The weather report was right that we would have very stormy weather and rain, we liked the fact it was going to rain as it made our scene more atmospheric. The wind was a little issue and it was a bit cold which made our stand in camera man move a little. lucky we worked around this and were ready to film the first few parts.

The shots were worked in order of distance, as the rain wasn’t that bad we got the longer away shots down were the camera was not in cover incase it rained. We had a problem as this was a public place so we struggled with getting opening where people were not walking through and it was looking a bit more secluded. But with Gaps amongst people coming back we got the shots done easily.

Their were some issues as Josh is the main character and the cameraman, it was hard to check that the shot looked okay with me in it as well as when we used someone else. But by using a stand in of our producer we saw what it looked liked and got the shots done. they looked good and we even added in a potential one we saw that interested us.

the shots were hard to get a smooth flow so we adopted a more movement in the shots and have some deliberate shake which gave it more depth and flow. this also made the close up shots varied and have a touch of disjointedness to them. 

We considered it before filming and decided that the disjointed movement of the camera gave the character a little bit more mystery as it was moving and unclear who he is and what he is doing. his mind seems disjointed yet he is very calm and slow. This will leave the audience to make their own opinion up if they think he is crazy or in control. which we decided looked better than slow swooping movements.

Overall the day shooting went really well, it was very planned and worked well. team was controlled by our editor and we took many takes but they were to perfect some movements of our character. over all a good day filming.

Evaluation on first recording

Evaluation on first recording- 3^rd January 2014 (Pub)

We arranged to meet at George’s dad’s pub at 9:30am. We all got there on time and there was no problem getting in.

One problem we had was that the Storyboard wasn’t on us as our teacher wanted them handed in over the holiday to check. This meant we had to just remember clips from memory so a slight bit of improvising was involved. 

We also needed to have a gun; I had ordered the gun 4 days before in the hope that it would be delivered by the filming date. This means that we had to pick another day to film, both because of the gun and scenes where it is involved and because we will have the storyboard next time and can see what we have missed.

Lighting was another problem we had, as the weather was rainy and dark, it meant the pub wasn’t naturally lit very well. The pub also didn’t have any lights built in the side we were using so we overcome the problem by using the light off my phone (light bluey colour like the sun is glaring in) and a more yellow light which Josh had bought in. 

Overall, the first day of filming went very well and we managed to get quite a lot of the work done and improvised on something’s which made same of the clips look better than we had planned.

Props

Props:

Guns

-A gun is a main prop in a Western. In every Traditional Western, there is always a shootout or at least a sight of several guns throughout the film. We made sure we ordered a gun that looked traditionally western and obviously wasn’t real.

Chairs

-As we were set in a pub, chairs/stools were a must have. 

Whiskey glass

-We needed a whiskey glass as we had a shot with ‘Whiskey’ in the glass. We used coke and water to make it look like whiskey and the glass was a normal glass but we had to make sure it wasn’t near the edge so it didn’t fall off and smash causing an injury hazard.

Ice

-Ice was used in the whiskey to add effect.

Cards

-We used cards for a shot on the table. They were there as cards are a source of entertainment now and so we thought It would be a good idea to implicate them in our opening.

Sound Research

Sound Research

Jake Bugg-Trouble town

-This song had the western feel but wasn't quite right. The lyrics didn't fit well and it was too slow for our movie. Our western is a strong mix of a modern and traditional western so it would be preferred if we had something more up beat and something with a more modern flare. Overall, this song is a very good song and was a good starting point for us. 

Devilman-On Dis Ting/John Dege-Too old to die

-As we were are doing a modern western, we were told to maybe try and mix these two songs together to give it both the modern and traditional feel. We thought about it as 'On Dis Ting' is under the grime genre, which is popular at the moment but we were limited with the software and would struggle to make it sound good so we decided that it wasn’t the best idea to do.

A large reason for choosing John Dege is because this song was featured in Django Unchained. As Django Unchained is more of a future Western that has been released within the past 3 years, we listened to the soundtrack and analysed which song(s) would fit best for our opening.

Kanye West Ft Frank Ocean- No Church in the Wild

We decided that this song was perfect for our opening. This is because it has a strong guitar bass, which makes it both modern and traditional. The guitar side makes it feel older like the traditional westerns such as ‘The Good, The Bad & The Ugly’. The heavy bass and the rapping is what includes the modern aspect.