Concept vlog

So we've finally come up with our concept!

Vlog

This is a vlog with me and Khadija talking about the filming of our plasticine storyboard.

Productive media morning

Khadija's brilliant brain came up with the idea that we should film our storyboard using plasticine figures so that we could see what sort of angles and shot types we will use when filming our final film to avoid any time wasting when on location. Here are some photos from our little experiment:

Weather conditions

We were hoping to film some of our film opening in some foggy woods, to do this we've realised we're going to have to get up relatively early so that the fog doesn't rise. There were a couple of foggy mornings last week and being the early bird that I am I managed to get a few photos:

                        

Practice reverse shots

This is one of the shots we took when we went to Forty Hall!

Reverse shot practice

After much trouble with youtube not working on the school macs, I have finally managed to get this video onto youtube at home! We have edited some of the footage I managed to get on one of the beaches in Wales and decided to see what it would look like in reverse. We were thrilled with the outcome and plan to hopefully use it for the opening credits or production/company name in our film opening. 

Reverse shot practice

We had quite a lot of difficulties trying to upload these few clips onto iMovie, but they weren't compatible so Khadija had to put them all onto her phone. At first she said she had some problems trying to put the clips in reverse because I don't think windows movie maker is that advanced :S. However, from this video I can see that she has put a lot of effort in to making it look good! We wanted to try some reverse shots with people in them and after trying it out with someone just walking we decided that wasn't the sort of look we wanted to go for because it was far too calm and almost boring. So together we all decided that it would look brilliant to record a fight scene and put it into reverse, and by the looks of this video I don't think we were wrong! Well done Khadija, and the song goes really well with it by the way! 

Planning session

Today Khadija and I made up some rough storyboards for our film opening, we also had a discussion with Miss Foster about the concept for our film opening and she seemed to like it *phew*. In the next week we plan to go out Location scouting so we can confirm the locations for each of our shots. We also need to visit some charity shops and vintage shops to try and find a fairly chaep second hand wedding dress. However, if worst comes to worst me and Khadija are textiles students so we could always make one! 

Concept ideas

After school today we had a very intense team meeting in Starbucks to discuss the concept for our film opening. Here we are looking all intellectual with our big brainstorming page and a large mug of energy boosting coffee! Our ideas page was a little messy to say the least, so I came home and wrote it up in neat, hopefully this idea for our film opening is better than the last!

We came up with lots of different ideas and finally settled on the idea of our character having some sort of mental illness. I went and did some research on mental illnesses and what they cause, we then used this to decide what mental illness our character would have. Here are some pictures of our planning:

Mac 3 Pitch

Last lesson we had a discussion with Miss Foster about the concept for our film opening. As you can see we haven't quite come up with the concept, we have lots of different ideas that all sort of tie in together but we have absolutely no idea how we could make a film of any length out of them! Hopefully we'll be taking a rather intense trip to Starbucks tomorrow so we can get it all sorted out. I think we need to redo our concept vlog once we've fully decided what we're doing, obviously there are a lot of changes to be made! 

Inspiration

This is an example of the sort of reversed film we're hoping to create. I think reverse film is very effective because it makes the viewer really think about what's going on as they have to try and re-reverse it in their head while they're watching it. It all sounds a bit confusing! Anyway, we've reversed some shots of the sea in Wales and when the internet is back up in school we'll be able to upload them onto youtube. Today we filmed a shot of the clouds moving, it's such a simple idea yet it looks so effective when sped up, we reversed the clip but it practically looked the same as in non-reverse so we're not sure! 

Inspiration

I've been searching for the opening scene of Fight Club for the past hour now (dedication at it's finest) but I give up! We wanted to show an example of a film that begins with the ending, so hopefully I'll be able to think of another film that uses a similar concept.

Today we were trying to think of some ways in which we could show the character in our film opening as having some sort of mental disability. We thought that it would look good if the character was filmed standing next to quick flashes of herself. Fight Club is a good example of this sort of technique, the main character suffers from insomnia, his fragile mental state is represented in the flashes he sees of his alter-ego. Hopefully we will be able to achieve something like this!

Photos

Here are some photos from today's escapade:

Forty Hall

Me with the makeshift dolly (my skateboard) on the way to Forty Hall

Once again with the snazzy media rucksack *face palm

Looking cool with the makeshift dolly (my skateboard)

Elena in the process of breaking the shed

The shed is now broken! 

Realisation that this is not a good thing

Me accidentally 'throwing' Elena to the floor 

Trying to drag Elena across the floor *sigh*

Elena being all dead and creepy

Me trying to look guilty :S

Fifth Vlog!

Finally we have a vlog with Elena in it! Miss Foster was ill today so we decided to go out and practice filming some of our ideas, we were going to try a tracking shot of me walking so that we could see what it looked like in reverse, but my skateboard was making the camera a bit shaky so unfortunately we had to ditch that plan. Instead we filmed a bit of a 'fight' scene to see what it would look like in reverse, this just resulted in me throwing Elena to the floor several times while getting some very strange looks from passers by, oops! 

Mind map

I did a little mind map of some ideas for our film opening, hopefully there's something there that Elena and Khadija like :]

Wales photos

So our group have decided to do some sort of horror/psychological thriller type film opening and while in Wales (surprise, surprise), we came across a small city/village type place called St David's. To my greatest delight there was a very old and creepy looking cathedral there, so I managed to film some of it and I also took some photos so we could hopefully gain some inspiration. 

Fourth vlog, Wales

Prepare for the exotic location vlog in sunny... Wales. I've come to the conclusion that I really need to stop starting a vlog with a cheesy "Hey" or "It's me", because who else would it be? Force of habit I guess! It was a bit windy as you can hear, but a great experience, luckily it was a nice day! 

Being thoughtful at the top of a 'mountain' (hill really...)

The snazzy media rucksack being all photogenic and such