Eighth Filming - The Friend Scene

The scene that replaced a lot of the previous videoing we did is the scene where Alice tells her female friend that she is in love with her to then be rejected.

Firstly, we filmed Alice coming to the scene from different aspects. These are shown below:

The first aspect we filmed was a follow shot: 

Pan Shot: 

Worm Shot:

After shooting her making her way to the bench, we then decided to shoot her waiting for Jessie. We hoped this would allow us to capture her fear for Jessie's arrival. We also wanted to show her sadness in order to get sympathy for the audience.

Extreme close up:

Side view:

front view:

Shown below is Jessie coming over:

 Shown below are two follow shots. Neither of these were extremely successful. However, they can still be used. 

long mid shots (2):

Next, we did Jessie's point of view. The first  try was not as successful as the second. This is because it was hard to keep composure for the actresses at some points. 

good: 

Our original idea was to have Alice touch Jessie's leg in order to show her attraction towards her. However, neither actress could maintain composure by doing that. So, instead of the leg, we decided to have Alice touch Jessie's hand which in our opinion, is more intimate.

The shots of the touching of the leg is shown below: (as shown, they are not successful). 

As you can see, we could not use these. Shown below is the clips of Alice touching Jessie's hand and Jessie's reaction.

Midshot:

Reaction from behind:

Jessie (Close up reaction):

A major problem we had during this filming was the weather. Due to the sun coming in and out of the clouds,the shadows of us filming are shown in some of the videos. This ruined those shots for us. As well as this, the lighting for each piece of filming differs which will make it more difficult to edit successfully. Shown below is some examples of the bad shots.

Our Lighting

For the lighting side of filming, we needed to ensure that our group knew exactly what we wanted before we filmed. This would allow all of our filming to go to plan. All of our lighting will be NATURAL LIGHTING as we are creating a film linked to realism. 

 There is photo evidence below to show how we experimented with different lighting and chose what was most successful. 

INSIDE

Firstly, we looked at controlling our lighting inside of the bathroom, which was now to be our main setting for the video.

Below is the bathroom at its Natural Light. With the blinds open and the main light switched off. It looks rather dark. It would be a problem if the sun was not bright as the blinds still manage to cover up a lot of  the outdoor lighting.

By turning the light on, we control the lighting more allowing the room to become slightly brighter. However, this light appears to give off a rather yellow tint (something we do not want to be obvious in our video). As well as this, the light is rather small leaving the scenery vulnerable to shadows etc. This lighting is not good enough for us to use. 

Another form of lighting already available to us in the bathroom is lamps next to the mirror that Alice will be standing in front of. Again, this would increase brightness BUT the yellow tint is still obvious. Also, Alice's face would be very lit up by these lights, maybe giving viewers a false sense of hope for her.  

 For the blinds (as shown below) we tried to open them and shut them to see the effect of the lighting in the room. Of course, shutting them was too dark as we were using no electrical form of lighting else where. Having them open however, could be risky due to it needing to be sunny outside to get a lot of lighting in. 

Shown below is how we perfected our lighting. By opening the blinds completely during filming, we allow the outside lighting to take control. Whether it is sunny or not, the lighting will always remain bright enough to film and will mean that the whole room contains the same amount of light. This is essential to maintain continuity and make sure that attention is not drawn else where in the room. The lighting should be the same on Alice, it should not matter where we film her within this one room. 

For the classroom, we will keep all the blinds down and have the MAIN lights on. The main lights will not cause a glare as they are all around. This will mean that the room will have an equal amount of brightness, something we need in order to keep Alice the main focus. 

OUTSIDE:

For outside, controlling the lighting is a lot more difficult due to the weather constantly changing. In this country, it is very hard to predict what the weather is going to be like. To solve this problem, we will try to do all our filming on one day (and hope that it is not too sunny). If there are problems, we will have to reshoot the scene once more. It is essential that the lighting remains the same as there is no change in time (we need to maintain continuity). 

New Locations

With a change in the story line, came a change of location (we have ensured to continue sticking to our research).

The Bathroom

The bathroom will be a key setting. This is where Alice will take the pills, mirror scene and the final moment will be here. From our research, we have discovered that the bath seems to be a place where sad moments tend to happen. I believe this is because it is a private place, no one can see what you are doing. Being alone allows Alice to reflect on her life and show how upset she is. She may hide her unhappiness in front of other people. 

This is where the outside scene will be. The lonely bench means that we can emphasize the  isolation of Alice too. The openness of the setting allows Jessie to come and leave whenever she wants. 

Other then this, we will use the same classroom as before. 

Our New Schedule

Before, our schedule was quite brief. As our change in plan has come about, we decided to make this one specific to the week to ensure everything gets done in time for our deadline.

24th and 25th of February:

• -        Major discussion with the group
• -        New story board/new time line
• -        Health and safety (new idea, new risks)
• -        Agree on new locations

26th and 27th of February:

• -        Start the filming outside
• -        Think more about lighting

End of February:

• -        Find the best date to film the first shots in the bathroom
• -        Look at the lighting

1st - 7th of March:

• -        One set of filming (Wednesday afternoon) - bathroom
• -        Start ancillary task research
• -        Ensure to keep blogging

8th - 14th of March:

• -        One set of filming - Bathroom scene (Wednesday afternoon or Thursday morning)
• -        Finish the research into the first ancillary task

15th - 21st of March:

• -        three lots of filming (filming should be finished this week minus re-shoots)
• -        Ensure to comment on use of angles etc.

22nd - 28th of March:

• -        Last reshoots
• -        Photographs of Alice taken (taken within a media lesson - Monday morning)
• -        Ancillary task 2 research

29th - 4th of April

• -        VERY PRODUCTIVE WEEK
• -        Edit the video (Jessie and Lauren will take more control over this with feedback from Jess)
• -        Edit the ancillary task 1 (Jess will take more control on this with help from the others)
• -        Edit the ancillary task 2

5th of April on-wards:

• -        Concentrate on evaluation questions
• -        Final touches
• -        Feedback from teacher
• -        Finish by the 18th of April 

New and Last Storyboard/Timeline

Due to the change of plan, we needed new story boards and time lines. We also wanted to ensure that our new story boards and time lines were more specific. Shown below are the time lines we have drawn. They are rather rough but, I believe will be essential to give our filming the push it needs. 
Rough time line: 

Specific Time line:

The first minute of our film: 

For the first minute of our film, we have made a timeline shown above. Within this minute we have a clear change of scene, allowing the video to remain interesting to the viewer  The transition from the school classroom BACK TO the bathroom will hopefully be a lovely transition as we will make Alice perform the same action. This will allow the two scenes to link, ensuring that the viewer understands that there is a link in the emotions of the character and the setting.

Change of Scene happens at: 

- 18 seconds

- 34 seconds

The Second minute of our film: 

Above, is the second minute of our film.The action is constantly building. The transition from the bathroom scene (at the very beginning) and the outside scene (with Jessie and Alice) is something we hope will appear very successful and professional. We will have it 'Fade to Black' which will emphasize the fact that it is a change in scene. 

Change of Scene happens at: 

- 1 Minute, 5 seconds

- 1 Minute, 36 Seconds

The end of our video: 

The last part of our video will contain a lot of action (especially in the 'Flashback' section). In this section we will cut and fade to all the different scenes and moments within the beginning two minutes of the video. I believe this will increase the drama at the time and we will ensure that each cut goes to the beat of the song.

Change of Scene happens at: 

- 2 Minutes, 9 Seconds

- 2 Minutes, 33 Seconds

New story line: 

Health and Safety Issues

With a change of plan, came health and safety issues. Although we looked at these before, we never thought to think about them seriously until major issues have arised. 

Firstly, we thought about the danger in our location.

The Bathroom:

The major health and safety issue with the bathroom is the use of water in the bath. This could cause many issues such as a wet floor. A lot of the time, there will be three or four of us in the room. We need to ensure that we contain the bath, not allowing too much water to get anyway. We will control this through use of bathroom mat and ensure to keep checking the floor. With Alice getting in and out of the bath, this is a particular safety issue concerning her. 

The pills: 

Another safety issue is that we are now dealing with drugs. We want to present Alice committing suicide. We decided to use paracetamols as we know that that they are rather harmless and not too expensive. We will ensure that Alice DOES NOT actually put the pills in her mouth. 

To ensure this does not look unrealistic in our video we will carefully angle shots so that we present the moment of swallowing as a long shot. This will mean that it is not obvious to the audience that she is not really taking them. 

Working outside:

Working outside can always be an issue. We will working next to a road most likely therefore, we need to always be conscious of cars etc. However, we will be filming opposite my own house on a road we know very well (it would not be busy). This decreases our risk of any accidents happening. 

CHANGE OF PLAN

WE HAVE A CHANGE OF PLAN

After looking at the filming we had already done, none of my group felt happy with our product. We felt like the story line was not realistic enough to have Alice wanting to self harm. Therefore, we decided to add a controversial scene. We decided to make Alice a homosexual, being in love with her friend and confused about her sexuality (having no one to talk to about it). 

Increasing our problems in the major issue that Alice has dyed her hair. This has meant that all our future shots with her will be her with darker hair. We have to re-film everything in order to maintain continuity. 

New Story Line:

Scene one:
- Alice in the bathroom

FADE

Scene two:

- Alice in an empty classroom
- Alice being shouted at by her teacher (we do not need to re-shoot a whole class)

CUT 

Scene Three:

- Back to the bathroom
- Alice in the mirror - Rubbing make up off

CROSS FADE TO BLACK

Scene Four:

- Alice sitting on the bench (outside of the school) 

- Alice tells her friend about her feelings (Jessie) 
- Jessie rejects Alice

Scene Five: 

- Back to the bathroom 
- Takes pills

Scene Six: 

- Getting in the bath 
- Goes under