To illustrate the work done for this project I have devised a diary in which I have logged our progress.
The bold text is what I personally did as part of the group to contribute to the activities.
Let us begin from where it all started...
10/07/11
We came together as a
group in the lesson and came up with a base of what we want as a practice
trailer. We’ve decided to film a comedy called “Big Fat Sweaty Coppers” and
have already discussed possible key scenes. With myself behind the camera, the
rest of the group (Jeremy Razzell, James Clark and Lewis smith) will be left to
acting and their contribution to post production.
12/07/11
Whilst we brainstormed
further ideas outside of lesson, Jeremy devised a mind map outlining the plan
of Big Fat Sweaty Coppers. One scene that we thought up was the opening scene:
the camera panning across a room filled with litter from fast food and one of
the fat coppers lying on the bed eating.
16/07/11
Today marked the day
of our first filming session. For the scenes shot today we headed to James’
house where the activities consisted of littering his room with fast food
wrappers, running him over in the car and a chase scene.
My role for the day was directing all of the
camera shots, working the camera and driving the car that hits one of the big
fat sweaty coppers.
As a group we
constructed a device on which to attach the camera, this was so we could keep
the camera still while in motion with the running character. This consisted of
a wooden beam on a mountain board – we then had the camera on a stand and
attached it on top of the mountain board.
21/07/11
The morning of today
was filled with yet more filming for B.F.S.C.
The scene was based in
the head office of the police force and involved myself playing a small cameo
of the Head chef office shouting at the two incapable fat coppers.
I was involved in dressing myself up with a
jumper shoved up my top and a fake moustache. This was my chance to shine and scream at the other two
coppers with cheesy dialogue “That was a shambles… I should strip you from your
moustaches!”. As I was acting on
set I had to line up the camera and then Jeremy was able to hit record when
ready.
29/07/11
For the shooting today
we travelled to Pembury as I had a perfect road in mind for filming a chase
scene. James was very helpful in creating a concoction that he would have to
spit out of his mouth to look like sick. The idea behind this scene is that in
the middle of a chase, detective Clark has to stop the pursuit and vomit his
lunch. Our friend Joe Walker played the part of the criminal being chased as we
needed a fresh new face for a fresh new character – only a very small cameo
however and only needed once.
My part in today’s activities was filming the
whole of the scene and again we used our invention to keep up with the
characters in motion.
05/08/11
Lewis (one of the lead
roles) has left the sixthform and although stating he will turn up for
shooting, the rest of the team feel that this will jeopardise the rest of our
filming opportunities.
13/08/11
Today’s filming was
done outside of school at the local Mcdonalds drive through. The scene involved
detective Clark and Smith in a car fighting over what looks like a serious
case/problem. However the shot zooms out and they are only arguing over what
food to get from Mcdonalds drive through.
I was again behind the camera and it was my job
to jump out of the car to get the shot of the car outside the drive through at
Mcdonalds. When at home I uploaded the videos onto the computer and started to
put together what we had so far.
19/08/11
The final shooting
took place today and consisted of Detective James Clark receiving an incoming
call for assistance in his car. The detective jumps out of the car – a trail of
fast food wrappers falling out with him, and slips up on a piece of litter,
bangs his head and falls on the floor.
I played the role of director and filmed the
various shots needed for the scene. This did include rerunning the scene so
that I could capture it at multiple angles, to then edit together after.
21/08/11
From home I uploaded the rest of the footage
and began to work on a draft to the final trailer. I have been using iMovie
software for all the editing. Also found a few song clips that I have put in as
a soundtrack to the trailer.
24/08/11
Continued editing and started adding in title
screens to the trailer. Can’t help but feel slightly limited with possibly not
enough clips. Never the less it’s only the practice trailer and we have enough
for me to experiment with.
27/08/11
I invited Jeremy and
James over to have a viewing of the close to finished draft. Very positive
feedback from them both, saying it ran smoothly and had a professional feel to
it.
02/09/11
Finished the final
version of Big Fat Sweaty Coppers and ahead of schedule. With the time we have
until we have to hand the finished product in we started to brainstorm for our
official coursework trailer.
18/09/11
Today we presented our
practice trailers to sir and the rest of the class. As a group we were very
enthusiastic about airing our Big Fat Sweaty Coppers trailer and it was well
received. The rest of the class had very positive things to say about it –
especially about how the music fitted well with what was happening on screen.
25/09/11
A task is set within
the lesson. In two days time we must stand up in front of the class and pitch
our new film idea and evaluate how the last practice trailer went, including
what techniques we will include in the next trailer from the experience. Later on in the day we completed half of
the powerpoint presentation on what we learnt from the practice trailer.
27/09/11
Presentation day. My
group and I allocated ourselves positions to play within the presentation; this
basically consisted of who would read from what slide. The video footage of our
presentation is posted up on the blog and below is a link to it.
Here is the powerpoint that we presented in the video - >Slideshow powerpoint<
we also had to gather some audience feedback from the someone in the class. This person had to answer questions we had relating to our new idea for the plot of our new film trailer. We interviewed Betty May and the video can be found on this blog. Here is the link below
5/10/11
Outside of lesson
brainstorming of possible names for the film. Among other absurd and entertaining names for the film, we
settled on one for the time being, however it may change in the future. So
without further a due, exclusively, I give you the name of our film…. Betrayal
and Retribution.
15/10/11
So after a bit of a
gap in progress we have in fact made great progress. Today, being a day when we
are all free, we travelled to Pembury and broke into the abandoned house for a
shot sequence. This scene was the bit in the trailer when Mark Steele goes
looking for his son in a horrible abandoned building.
I was the man behind the camera and ended up
scavenging the house for quality angles and heights for the best shots.
17/10/11
I but together the clips we had shot from the
abandoned house into a montage and added a rough soundtrack to it.
22/10/11
Showed the group what
I had put together
27/10/11
We presented the work
I had already shown to group to the rest of the class, and Mr Morris. Here we
were giving a positive comment from Mr Morris – “ looking very promising guys,
I’m liking the camera work and the music fits nicely. However you need to have
more shots”
10/11/11
we shot some scenes
just outside of school today – round the back of the sports centre. I chose
this location because it has a very urban feel to it and has some interesting
and useful “landmarks”, like the metal stairs running off the side of the
building that feature in the trailer. This scene involve the character of Mark Steele (played by
jez) chasing down a mysterious hooded character (played by james)
Again, I did the filming for this
18/11/11
Today’s filming
featured a special guest cameo. Our friend Tom played the role of the priest
who Mark Steele visits for some religious enlightenment. We used the school
chapel for the interior to this scene. Very well performed Mr Tom
Harrington-Voight.
I filmed and collaborated with Tom and Jez in
finding a bible verse for Tom to read that would be appropriate for the
trailer.
25/11/11
I put together the clips from the chapel and
put them in with the previous montage of clips we have
01/12/11
We presented what we
had so far to the class and Mr Morris.
10/01/12
Back to work! Nice
Christmas break, in which my mind was partially thinking about Christmas dinner
and partially about future plans for Betrayal and Retribution.
New scene thought up involving the character of
Mark Steele throwing himself around his study in anger.
20/01/12
I spontaneously
decided to travel up to Sevenoaks to Jeremy’s home in the countryside. This was
to film various shots including the opening scenes… yes we did not shoot
chronologically.
Finally, these scenes involved my presence in
front of the camera. I played my role of friend with bad news. I had to set the
camera up on a stand and hit record before stepping into the scene.
Due to losing light we
didn’t manage to finish filming all we needed and agreed to set another date to
film before my departure.
25/01/12
BACK TO JEREMY’S
29/01/12
Due to the scenes
recorded at Jeremy’s home, we are very close to being finished.
Today I added all the new footage to the
trailer in progress and selected a song for the opening sequence.
I actually used the
same song that featured in the trailer “shooter” that we looked at in the
research stage of the project. The song fitted perfectly in that trailer, as
does it in ours.
03/02/12
Today was spent
getting the last few scenes for the trailer. These were the office scenes and
we used certain rooms in the school for it. We actually used two separate rooms
to create the look we wanted; this was a good enough desk from one room and a
large window overlooking the rest of the school in another. Through editing no
one can tell the difference.
I acted in this for a bit as well with the
dramatic dialogue “you can’t keep living your life like this!” For this I
needed to dress up in a smart suit.
10/02/12
Further editing on my behalf as I added in some
title screens as well
15/02/12
So close to being
finished. Needed one more shot to be filmed, which I had forgot about. This was
the clip illustrating the death of his wife. Had my mum and dad help me for
this at home. We made up a murder scene in which my dad was taking a picture of
my dead mum (Mark Steele’s dead wife).
17/02/12
Finished the whole trailer! Last minute editing
involved all the scenes rewinding in a few quick seconds to building music and
then all turns black and the title ‘Betrayal and Retribution’ explodes onto the
screen.
Very Happy with the
end result and can’t wait to show Jeremy and James tomorrow.
18/02/12
The Premier of
Betrayal and Retribution went down a treat. Everyone loved it and Mr Morris
seemed to think it would score extremely high. Now uploaded to Youtube and
Facebook means I will be able to get some feedback.
That concludes the
diary of Jack Welch Director of media A-level project 2011-2012. Id like to
thank everyone involved, my team and, of course, the people who made this all
possible… You, the board.
Jack out!
End transmission.
