Production Notes

Production Notes

A lot of work went into our preliminary task. Before we made the film, we had to storyboard it, shoot it, and then edit it. It was a long process, but necessary in making our preliminary film.

     Storyboarding

We started our preliminary task by storyboarding. Me, Samuel and Daniel, once we had a concept, worked together to create a storyboard. None of us were particularly good at drawing, but we still managed to outline our ideas into a storyboard. We also put short notes next to the pictures with any necessary extra information. I think that the process of storyboarding was useful, as it made us think about how we could shoot it and discuss what would and wouldn't work. However, our lack of artistic skills did make the process slightly difficult.

Parts of our storyboard:

     Filming

Me and Samuel filmed our piece on the 29th September in one of the classrooms in school. It took us about an hour to film, with me and Samuel both behind and in front of camera. 

Filming our preliminary task:

It was quite difficult having only two of us filming the task, but using a tripod we managed to do it. We would test out the shot by having one of us on screen and the other checking that the shot looked good, then if necessary swapping around to check for the other person. For shots which required camera movements, we would set it up so that only one of us would have to be in frame, with the other person working the camera. For example, in the shot where the camera pans to follow Samuel's feet walking, he walked and I rotated the camera. Generally, however, we set up the tripod, pressed record then ran into position to film.

The storyboard compared to frames from the actual film:

When filming, we mostly stuck to the storyboard we had drawn up the week before. This was useful, as it meant we didn't have to think about what shots to do, and we knew what we had to film and what the shots should look like. Once we had got all the shots on our storyboard, we filmed from other angles as well. This was when we filmed my favourite shots, the one when I tell Samuel 'wait'. We were lucky to have a few minutes to spare at the end, as if we hadn't we would never have got that shot. This alerted me to one drawback of storyboarding, which is that it can be slightly restricting; if we had not have had any extra time, that shot would have never been taken.

My personal favourite shot:

Overall, our filming was quite successful. We managed to film everything we needed, and our shots looked good. However, having only the two of us was very difficult, and if I were to do this again I would definitely use three people to film it.

     Editing

My preliminary task was the first thing I had ever edited on my own, so I am very pleased with how it turned out. The first thing I did when editing was to decide what genre it would be, as this would have an impact on the colour, speed, sound and titles. I decided that my film was in the mystery genre, so I edited it to match that. For colour, I went with a fairly low saturation and exposure. This made the film feel moody and dark, which added to the mystery of the film. The speed was fairly average, maybe slightly slower, and matched with the natural sound to make the film feel realistic. The only sound I added was in the title and end sequences, where I chose noises that matched my genre - a typewriter for the title and a low, moody music piece for the end screen. The title sequences were basic, and I added in no effects which added to the realistic tone of the film. Overall, I think the editing was successful. The continuity was pretty much perfect, and the film suited the mystery genre well.

     Overall

Overall I think my preliminary task was quite successful. The planning, filming and editing all went well, and the overall film, for a first attempt, is quite good. The thing I am the most pleased with is the shot I mentioned above and the fact that two of us managed to both film and feature in the film. However, if I was to do it again, I would make sure that there were three of us filming and use a different angle for the part when Samuel says 'you'll understand one day', as it seems quite distant and far away. I also would have recorded some footage that was just the background noise, as during the editing I had to remove the noise from a few of my shots for the sake of continuity, and if I had recorded some background noise then I could have used that instead of silence, which doesn't fit well. Despite these things I think the task was a success overall.