Today i went and took pictures of some of my locations. I had visualised these places when writing the script so i had a good idea in my head of where i wanted them to be set. I always find it useful as a writer/director to have a place in mind especially for these sorts of projects as it could be a lot more difficult to source if you hadn't fully thought through the location in your script.
The garages 1:
The 1st garage location is on an estate but not on a side street. i want the garages to be more secluded and also a little bit more run down than these ones
Garages 2:
The 2nd garage location is just off this street..
The estate is further up the road but i feel that this is slightly more reflective off the location i have in mind. This panoramic view shows the garages on either side of the street, but the garages i want to use are down the side street where the rspb sign is pointing.
These are the Garages i have in mind.
I like the run down aspect of the area, although there isn't any grafitti i think the leaves and rubble still gives a good image of run down, especially being off the other street.
The woods:
These woods are where i am considering having the woods day for night scene, i feel that in parts their is good enough coverage for us to not see the sky and therefore give a good darkness impression. I also like the trees being near the path as they could be a good depth of field shot and also a good place for Jack to try and hide.
We had a workshop where we had to take a news story which i cannot name for legal reasons and work in groups to film a package about this news. The brief was we were able to visit the foreign country and had access to interviews. I worked with Danny and Chris and was chosen as the reporter. Chris was on camera and danny on sound and also doubled up as my interviewee.
We decided to go for a more human aspect of the story and tried to tell it through the families eyes. We also wanted to have a live link and tried our best to follow in the style of BBC reporters waiting outside a building for a person to bring news. i enjoyed the task and felt it helped me to learn more about what goes into a package and how to interview someone and even more so the kind of shots involved. I feel that from watching more news i have become more familiar with the standard shots they use now and this helped majorly on this task.
Things i would do differently is perhaps have been able to set up some shots myself as i was reporting i couldn't really get the opportunity to film. Also myself and the boys found it difficult to initially think of an interesting way to tell this story and this wasted a lot of time but i think eventually we found a good way.
I have a few scenes where i need to film at night so i have been looking at different methods to help with this. Initially i looked at the locations i was wanting to film. I knew that the riverside has lighting at night but after seeing videos made by others from the class in low light and the issues they had, i wanted to look at how i could help improve filming quality in low lighting.
Rule 1: Never go above ISO 1600 or images get noisy
Rule 2: Keep shutter speed between 1/30s and 1/50s or images get flickery lights
Rule 3: Aperture needs to be between f/1.2 and f/5.6
Rule 4: Change to picture style of camera/ take the contrast down or the image will be darker than it should be
Rule 5: Need to shoot where lots of lights are or bring artificial light.
I found that this article and video really helped me to understand a lot more about the filming and as i will be using my canon 550d. I have a 50mm f/1.8 II lens and this is perfect for low lighting and should produce the results needed for some of the filming i am going to be doing at dusk/early evening. I will test this out before filming.
Here is an example of this lens in use:
The depth of field on this lens is great and it works really well in low lighting. it also produces a really nice Bokeh effect which i have in mind for my seeing stars scene and also when jack is dying.
I also spoke to fergus about the possibility He said that the lighting we had at the studios was for indoor use and that i would need to get simon to approve and risk assess any other equipment and that he personally wouldn't recommend it. He said that the lighting we had at the studios was for indoor use and that i would need to get simon to approve and risk assess any other equipment and that he personally wouldn't recommend it. He did however suggest the possibility of shooting day for night. I decided to research this a lot more.
This video was really useful as it helped give me a step by step sort of visual guide to how to create this effect.
I need to film on an overcast day and not in bright sunlight in order for this to work at its best. It may even work slightly better at the end of the day due to the sun setting although i would have to be careful of running out of light at all.
I need to not show the sky as it gives away the time of day, this could work well in my woodland setting due to the trees covering most the sky and the fact most of the shots are quick paced and close ups.
Change the white balance setting to tungsten
Access the iris controls/ shutter controls and darken
In post production apply a blue solid layer, reduce the opacity of this until you have a blue haze
on main video footage, reduce the saturation to around 20-25%
adjust black & white levels on after effects etc
I feel that doing a test shoot and working on this will seriously help me when editing so i will do this over the next few days so as to be as prepared as possible. this will also help me to discover if the location is lit well enough in the first place for filming as there are a lot of trees where i am planning my day for night scene.
I also watched this video which discusses more about the editing process:
I found this tutorial really useful as it explains each step and as i have after effects on my laptop i will be able to refer to this when i am editing and hopefully create a realistic night look.
overall i feel this research will really be crucial to my film.
I want to have a certain colour to my flashback scenes to highlight the sadness and darkness of the piece. my initial thought was adding a blueish tone would help this idea and so i decided to try and research colour grading and colour correction in order to have a better understanding of this process. I found a really interesting tutorial where they explained the different layers involved in creating a certain look and colour for a film.
My first proper editing experience was with a journey through love and i found it really inciteful and useful for me to research the techniques involved in creating the very specific style i wanted. It also helped me to understand some of the iconic filming techniques when filming a black and white silent film so i was able to incorporate these into my directing and adapt them as i saw fit.
Here is the video:
I found this video to be really useful and think i will refer to this in my edit. As i am using outside camera and cinematographers will mention this colouring idea to them and see if there are certain things that can be done in terms of camera work or lighting to help with this theme.
I am keen to find a location near a river for a few of the scenes in my film, I have a few areas in ind but unsure who to contact about them so i decided to write to the Kent film office for some assistance.
Here is my email:
Hello, im a 2nd year student at UCA Rochester studying TV Production. We had a visit from Hannah Lucey to talk to us about the work of the Kent Film Office and the help they can offer us. I am currently in the process of finding a nearby riverside location where i can film some scenes from my short film as part of my fiction adaption unit. The Film is an adaption of the Siegfried Sassoon poem The Death Bed. I will need to be able to access an area near the waters edge but none will be entering the water at all. As i work at Cineworld Rochester i know the riverside there is a great location and across the water from that is a rowing club but was unsure about being able to film. I was wondering if you could assist me further in finding a location suitable.
I wanted to look at film story telling methods of narration and films that contained similar content. One of the first i thought of was one of my favourite short films - Donkey.
Donkey tells the tale of what happens when a London banker who was the most popular kid in school bumps into the man he bullied. I like this story as the narrative is not only poignant but also witty and clever. The story is also told from the bully's perspective and i think thats an interesting concept especially as its set in a time when these children are now adults and have their own lives and families. I also like how its shot in black and white, in a sport of memory sequence, while the narrator is describing things he does now. Here is the video:
Another film i was recently informed off was 'Dead Mans Shoes'. This a 2004 film from director Shane Meadows, telling the story of a man who returns home from military service to a small town in the Midlands. He has one thing on his mind: revenge. Payback for the local bullies who did some terrible things to his brother. At first his campaign employs guerrilla tactics, designed to frighten the men and put them ill at ease. But then he steps up his operation, and one by one these local tough guys are picked off.
I like the story telling method in this film as it wasn't dialogue scripted which makes the film feel more realistic and natural. I am interested in taking this approach with the dialogue of the characters in my film so that although the narration is scripted, the bullying scenes would feel a lot more real if they were natural dialogue of the actors. I also like a lot of the colouring involved in this film, although i disliked the black and white clique flashbacks.
I think i have learnt more about how i can create my story in particular the narration and acting involved.
I want to give a clearer image of the type of actors i am looking for in terms of visuals.
Jack - Jack is an average looking boy - not ugly, not handsome. He dresses in correct school uniform, follows the rules and does what he's told.
Although this actor is a little young i think his image is fairly well suited.
Freddie highmore is a little older and has a good look for the part also. I think the braces make him look a lot younger which is something to consider.
Cal: Cal is a good looking but tough guy. I want him to appear physically quite scary but also have that air about him that is this boy next door type.
Actors like Iwan Rheon and Christian Cooke have that darker side to their good looks but maybe not the physical presence. A younger vin diesel type may work for this role.
After all he is a leader and needs to be instantly recognisable, perhaps a skin head or similar may work well for this role.
As for other gang members i want them to be typical of a gang and have that pack look to them. Almost anonymous compared to the leader.
I personally haven't had much experience with war. I can't relate to it personally but this got me thinking... What 'war' can people relate to? Because I'm not sure how many people can say they have personally been effected by war without having a family member or being involved themselves. Well for me war is usually a conflict between 2 sides. Usually one side is bigger and stronger than the other. Its about power and its about control. And therefore a more relatable version of this is bullying. Bullying is an unfair fight where 1 side controls and punishes another for gain, they use superior strength or influence to intimidate someone, typically to force them to do something. It sounds a lot like war to me. More people will know someone that has been bullied or will have been bullied than will have been effected by war. So i wanted to explore this and touch upon the one of the things that can happen as a result of bullying - Suicide. I know people that have tried to commit suicide or have committed suicide and therefore its a subject close to my heart. When i first read The Death Bed i felt a strong connection to it and was able to immediately picture the story in my head in relation to a bulling theme. The plot for my short film is centered around a 15 year old boy called Jack who after months of being tormented by a gang who have 'befriended' him, he makes the decision to end his life. We follow Jack as he makes his last journey to his favourite place and along the way see his abuse, through flashbacks. Here are some statistics:
Almost 45,000 children talked to ChildLine about bullying last year.
More than 16,000 young people are absent from school due to bullying.
45% of young people experience bullying before the age of 18.
26% of those bullied have experienced bullying on a daily basis.
61% of respondents have been physically attacked.
30% have gone on to self-harm as a result of bullying.
10% have attempted to commit suicide as a result of bullying.
Childline Statistics (2014)
I hope that by making a film like this is can do something to help teenagers being bullied and show the consequences that can result from bullying.
In order to prepare for filming i have been learning about special effects make up from youtube, one of my friends is keen to get into this industry but lives in wales and so has also been giving me tips on how to make it realistic.
Here are the videos i found useful:
Although this video was on the lip i found it great for finding out more on liquid latex, i think this is the kind of cut i will use for above jack's eye.
I found this useful as it talked about how adding thicker blood will give your cut a more realistic look.
I have previously created a black eye for my media studies project so i have some experience with this and so feel comfortable in this area. however as this black eye is a few days old, no swelling, and therefore more yellowy and fading slightly i wanted to see some videos for examples of this sort of colouring.
The main thing to remember is to have reference photos so to try and make it as realistic as possible. This black eye video was the most realistic i have seen and so i felt this sort of make up tutorial was the most useful for me.
Here are some reference photos for the kind of black eye i am going for:
In this picture you can see that their is bruising the other side of the nose, this is something i need to make sure to do when applying make up to the actor.
this is a more subtle black eye, there is more yellow around the eye but i need to make sure that this comes across well on camera so may need to do a few test shots of this to see if it works.
I have been making a list of what costumes my characters will need.
Jack:
Pj's - T shirt & short/trousers
Dark coat, jeans, trainers
School uniform - Blazer, shirt, tie, black trousers, school shoes, school bag
2 casual outfits - jeans/trackies, coat, - no hoodies
Cal & Gang - 3 different hoodies per gang member, jeans/trackies/ trainers
Strangers - Normal clothing, these are older people & must show a contrast between the gang - no hoodies
Props:
For Jack's room -
Pictures of boats, riverside, seaside
ornaments of seaside - boat, lighthouse, shells etc
alarm - either phone or bedside alarm clock
Woodland -
Bruise wheel make up
Fake Blood, liquid latex
A Rock
Knowing what you need for your scenes is important and setting the scene is vital for the realness of scene. i want jack's bedroom to feel like his room and having ornaments and pictures on his walls will help this.
