Post 7 - Trouble Uploading

This week, we tried to upload our continuation of film but we had encountered problems. The problem we had was first the sound of the footage we had captured was distorted once uploaded on Final Cut Express, I think that this may be due to the equipment provided, in particular the recording tape, which has been used by other groups in the past. The sound sometimes was audible then completely silent, which told me that the footage recorded was inconsistent and unrepairable.


Another problem was with all the footage that was captured. Once the footage was uploaded onto FCE, the massive stretch of footage had been divided into individual 2 sec clips. This was very frustrating as we had about 30mins of footage which was broken down into miniscule clips. We had tried to merge the clips together; however this made the footage look distorted and choppy due to the way it was divided up.

Post 6

Some extra photos of when we continued our filming (classroom scenes).

Post 5 - Continuation Of Filming

This week, I continued to film the classroom scenes. I had collected the majority of the male cast to act as fellow students behind the main characters; this will make the narrative more realistic and easier for the audience to identify with. In total I had recruited 5 male cast members, their role was to act as ‘extras’ or ‘supporting actors’, their role had also helped to further ‘fill out’ the scene, in other words they helped to populate the background which would have otherwise been empty.

    

           

My role was as before, to control the camera and also direct the figure movement and positioning of the actors. In the classroom scenes, were firstly filmed from 1 corner of the room. Firstly in this scene, I filmed the film club teacher. For me, this meant that with the camera I had to follow and track the movements of the teacher, as he was explaining what the class had to do. I also filmed the same scene in various shots such as CU’s and XCU’s, to capture emotion and give my group a more varied choice of shots for when we edit and complete our trailer.

Later, we filmed the same scene but now I was filming the class. I had filmed from the same corner and this was perfect as it had enabled me to record the entire cast within the scene simultaneously. I had also panned across the room whilst in CU shots; this helped in capturing expressive emotions in each individual actors face. Whilst filming the CU’s of the main characters, the extras happened to also be in the shots. However, they appeared in a softer focus which helped to distinguish between main characters and supporting characters. This same scene was repeated, although the camera position was transferred from the corner of the room, to the exact centre. This allowed me to get an even closer view of certain actors and it had also broadened the audiences perspective of the classroom, which makes the scene more interesting and more dimensional, as opposed to whether I had recorded from just a single angle.

Next, we filmed the corridor scene which only required a few select actors, 3 supporting female actors and 1 main Female and Male actor. Initially, I had filmed a XCU on the film club poster attached to a classroom door to help visualise part of our narrative. After that, I filmed all the female actors by the film club room chatting while they were facing the camera, while our main character (Male Protagonist) is walking towards them and inquiring about the club.

This same scene was subsequently filmed from about 15-20ft behind the female actors; at the same time the main protagonist walks past the camera and repeats the same scene, however now it is filmed from a different angle.

I had also thought it would be a good idea to include some tracking in the corridor scene, in this same scene the camera tracks in and follows the protagonist as he approaches the group of girls outside the film club classroom. I thought this movement would give the audience a more realistic view, as if they were actually there and witnessing the scene first hand. While tracking, I had also increased the height of where the camera was shooting, this gave the effect as if the audience where watching the scene from an obscure angle, which only adds another dimension towards the trailer. Furthermore, the tracking and height of the angle helped me to include all the actors in the scene, as earlier (filming the group outside the film club) I was having trouble capturing the ‘select few’ all in the shot. Although, taking everything into consideration, I would say that this week was our most productive to date!

Post 4

This week, I uploaded the footage that I had filmed last Saturday (7/11/09). However, our footage did not appear as if it was uploaded as individual shots, rather all the shots appeared as 1 single stretch of film. So in the lesson, I had decided to split up the shots individually on Final Cut Express, so that in the future when all filming had been completed, editing the shots would become a simpler task as it would help the ordering and editing to be much easier. 

Post 3

These are some of the pics that we took while we were filming and some moments between shooting!

Post 2

This weekend, I started filming the trailer. I collected the acting cast in the morning, and we walked to Cannon Hill Park which is the location of part of my horror trailer. In the Park, I filmed the group scenes which consisted of the group gathering together as a group of friends and then later on splitting up into smaller groups to carry on with their nature projects. I had also filmed some still shots of the park, e.g. trees, grassy areas, signposts etc for the beginning of the trailer, to lull the audience into a false sense of security. I had also filmed Raza and Uzma, the two main characters away from the group, in a woodland setting because this was where the corpse and the running shots were going to take place in a secluded area.


I filmed most of the shots from a series of angles and framing also, I used worms eye view (when the body gets dragged away), MS, LS, CU, XCU. I also did some camera movement, by panning and following the actors when they were in a large group then split, and also when Raza ran through the woodland in a mad rush.