Filming

On our first day of filming it turned out that the daylight had escaped us before we had chance to film the birthday flashback scene. We decided instead that we would film the teddy bear flashback scene where the sister's teddy bear has gone missing and the Sister is blaming Hope.

Second day of filming - Sister assurance scene - We found this scene difficult to film because each section was going to be in a different location. For continuity we decided we were going to film this scene all in one location instead (Lorna's room)

Third day of filming - Re-shot sister assurance scene in 1 location (Lorna's room)
                              - Shot all scenes of Hope in her sister's bedroom all diary scenes (Lorna's room)
                  
Fourth day of filming - Birthday scene outside of house (Stella's house)
                                - Sister leaving the house front door (Stella's house)
                                - Sister and Hope fight scene (Stella's house)

Pre-Production logistics

Shooting schedule

Date: Mon 15th Nov   
Filming Tasks: Stella- Equipment and props
                          Lorna- Co-directing and Camera
                          Priscilla- Acting
                          Tosin- Acting and Directing     
Scene: Birthday flashback scene                
Locations: Outside of House             
Equipment: Necklace, Balloons, Camera, Tripod, Camcorder  

Weather forecast for our shooting schedule

Date: Thursday 18th Nov
Filming tasks: Lorna- camera 1 and directing
                        Stella-Sound and lighting and camera 2
                        Priscila- Acting and Co-directing
                        Tosin- Acting and Equipment
Scene: Teddy bear flashback scene and Fight
Location: House- indoors- kitchen, room and stairs
Equipment: Camera 1 (Camcorder), Tripod, Teddy bear, Sound equipment, Camera 2 (digital camera)

Date: Friday 19th Nov
Filming tasks:Stella- Camera and equipment
                        Lorna- Camera and lighting
                        Priscilla- Sound and Acting
Scene: Sister assurance scene
Location: Room- at desk
Equipment: Camera, Tripod, Diary

Date: Sat 20th Nov
Filming tasks: Tosin- Acting and Co-directing
                         Lorna- Camera and Directing
                         Stella- Equipment and Lighting
                         Priscilla- Acting
Scene: Main scenes of girl in room reading diary
            Plus any other unfinished scenes
Location: Room
Equipment: Bear, Camera, Camcorder, Tripod, Diary

Shot list

As there were more things added to the storyboarding and certain things taken away, we need to update the shot list.

Shot list:
Mon-Birthday scene- Outdoors- In front of house- Daytime

• Shot 1: Sister sitting outside of House looks bored- Panning, Long shot, followed by close up
• Shot 2: Hope running towards destination- Close up of feet running
• Shot 3: Sister looking irritated and cold, looking around for sister Med shot taken in profile and again in side view
• Shot 4: Sister gets up, sees Hope approaching, Hope walks into shot- Long shot
• Shot 5: Shot reverse shot- sister complaining she is late, Hope complaining that sister is impatient.
• Shot 6: Hope hands sister necklace- Close up
• Shot 7: Close up of sister smiling and saying thank you

Thu-Teddy bear and Fight scene- Indoors- Afternoon/Evening

• Shot 1: Sister shouting- close up
• Shot 2: Hope cleaning up kitchen, making herself something to eat- Med shot
• Shot 3: Sister shouting downstairs to kitchen- Low angle shot
• Shot 4: Hope leaving kitchen- Med shot and tracking
• Shot 5: Hope at door way- Med shot, panning until sister can be seen
• Shot 6: Sister sitting on stairs asking for teddy bear back- Low angle med shot
• Shot 7: Hope complains back- High angle
• Shot 8: Sister sticks out tongue- Med shot
• Shot 9: Hope walks back into kitchen- High angle
• Shot 10: close up of hope smirking
• Shot 11: focus into sink
• Shot 11: close up of tap
• Shot 12: Tilt of camera into sink, teddy bear is seen
• Shot 13: Hope slapping sister
• Shot 14: Sister crying in corner
• Shot 15: Extreme close up of tear

Fri-Indoors-bedroom/entrance-Afternoon- Assurance scene

• Shot 1: Long shot- sister writingin diary
• Shot 2: Close up of diary, while it is being written in
• Shot 3: Close up of sister writing in diary
• Shot 4: Long shot of sister approaching door
• Shot 5: Sister turning around to look back
• Shot 6: Sister walking out
• Shot 7: long shot of door being closed

Sat-Diary scenes/main scenes- Bedroom-indoors

• Shot 1: Panning long shot- Hope on bed looks depressed
• Shot 2: Close up of picture of two sisters
• Shot 3: Close up of window area
• Shot 4: Med shot of Desk- Panning
• Shot 5: High angle down the stairs
• Shot 6: Close up of hand squezzing bed
• Shot 7: Close up of Hope looking sad
• Shot 8: Med shot of Hope getting up from bed
• Shot 9: Long shot of her walking towards window
• Shot 10: Long shot of her walking back towards her bed and sitting down
• Shot 11: Long shot of her lying on floor playing with a ball
• Shot 12: Long shot of her going towards desk
• Shot 13: Med shot of her opening drawer
• Shot 14: Low angle from inside drawer
• Shot 15: Over the shoulder of Hope looking through drawer
• Shot 16: High angle close up of diary in drawer
• Shot 17: Med shot of Hope pickingup diary
• Shot 18: Med shot of her examining diary
• Shot 19: Med shot of her walking away
• Shot 20: long angle of bed
• Shot 21: Long angle of Hope approaching bed and sitting down
• Shot 22: Med shot of Hope opening diary
• Shot 23: Close up of diary, Hope flicking through pages
• Shot 24: Extreme close up of Hope, smiling slightly
• Shot 25: Long shot, panning of Hope on bed
• Shot 26: close up of back of diary
• Shot 27: side view, med shot of hope flicking through pages
• Shot 29: Close up panning of diary page of doodle
• Shot 30: Over the shoulder shot, flicking to another page
• Shot 31: Med shot from behind Hope Putting down diary and walking away from bed towards desk
• Shot 32: Panning across bed to diary
• Shot 33: Close up of diary
• Shot 34: Panning across writng
• Shot 35: close up of behind Hope
• Shot 36: Hope holding teddy bear- Med shot
• Shot 37: Close up of teddy bear
• Shot 38: med shot hope walking out of shot
• Shot 39: Long shot of hope back on bed, and puts down teddy bear
• Shot 40: close up of diary and her picking it up
• Shot 41: Med hot of her reading another entry
• Shot 42: Close up of her looking upset and troubled
• Shot 43: Close up of word hate in diary
• Shot 44: close up of word Cruel in diary
• Shot 45: Med shot of Hope throwing diary
• Shot 46: Close up of diary being thrown on floor and it opening to last page
• Shot 47: Close up of diary and girl approaching it
• Shot 48: long shot of girl reading entry
• Shot 49: Low angle shot of girl crying
• Shot 50: Girl picking up diary -med shot
• Shot 51: Long shot, girl walking towards desk
• Shot 52: med shot of diary being placed on desk
• Shot 53: Long shot of door
• Shot 54: Close up of Hope looking towards window, looking happy
• Shot 55: Hope walks towards door and leaves room, shutting the door behind her

Presentation

 Overall we felt that our presentation went well; in particular we thought that:

• we had a fair amount of detail in our presentation
• our information on Freytag's Pyramid was detailed and informing

What didn't go well:

• Not enough information on narrative
• Missed out some sections for example information on despair and the initial narrative for our film

To Improve we feel we could:

• Include more information on existing products and codes and conventions of our chosen genre of Drama and our theme of Despair
• A shooting schedule for when we are going to film
• A conclusion of our film 
• Add more time, planning and consideration into producing presentations
• Do more research into similar products relating to our chosen theme of despair and genre of drama

Below is our presentation for our pitch. For full view please view on SlideShare

Presentation for Pitch

View more presentations from ToxicCrimson.

Pre-Storyboard Shotlists, Storyboards and Animatics

Pre- Storyboard Shot list

We began our storyboard process by creating a Pre-Storyboard Shotlist. This consists of our initial sequence of shots for our drama.

We mostly wrote down the main shots in the short film.
















Storyboard

After this we drew up the storyboard.

Animatics

We drew out each shot on sticky notes and re-arranged them until we were happy with the result. We found out this process was quite long but detailed well the idea visually.

This meant that we saved some time and we weren't constantly rubbing out drawings because we had missed out a shot out.

We then put all of the sticky notes onto black paper and took pictures of each one individually.

They were then all put onto Final Cut Express and edited together along with recorded voice overs and soundtrack, though the music doesn't finalize the actual soundtrack we would use, but gives an idea of what we are going for in our film, so to help us visualize our final product.



We got the music from a site called incompetech, which offers royalty free music and arranges tracks by mood, genre and time period. So we would be definently using this in future.

Here is a picture of us doing the animatics on final cut express.














This is the final product of our animatics. Creating the animatics has helped us see where there could be problems in our film and we can now try and prevent them.

Script

Rough draft of script

We began to start up the script. With our film, and as a drama, we wanted to evoke more mood through the actions, emotions and music within it.

There isn't a lot of talking from the main girl Hope, and within the script she is often labelled as Girl, since at this point in time, we were still deciding on a name for her.

Casting

Girl (Hope)
Tosin Oluyadi: 
Plays the main sister. She is devastated by her sister's loss. She often gives her sister a reality check about the way she behaves and tells her to grow up. She gets frustrated with her sisters behaviour because she finds her annoying. She is the more outspoken sister.
Initially, we named the young girl Jessica so that the audience can relate to the character more. If she were to be nameless the audience may feel disconnected. We have now decided to call her Hope due to the irony of the name contrasting to the theme of the short film (Despair).





Sister
Priscilla Amankwah:
Plays the sister that has died. She often feels her sister is unfair to her and doesn't understand her. She feels her sister always has a say in everything she does. She gets frustrated when her sister takes her things away. She expresses her feelings in a diary, rather than saying things outloud to her sister, but she would rather keep her feelings inside. She is the more shy sister.
Deep down inside the two sisters have a strong sibling relationship and they stick by each other in the end.
We have not given the sister a name because we do not want the audience to get too attached to her character because the viewers attention will be drawn away from the main character.

Location

Below are some possible locations where we could shoot our film

Lorna's Room - The Young Girl's Bedroom

Ideally, we want to find a room that will not let in too much light and also, is not brightly coloured, as this will interfere with our chosen theme of despair. 

We are going to use this room because we believe it suits our film well. It is a large room and althought in the daylight it is ver ybright ; we are going to film in the evening around 5 or 6 when it gets dark to create a darker atmosphere for our film.

This is the birthday scene that we will be filming outside stella's house.

The stairs that we would be shooting from for the voiceovers of the two

adults as well as for the teddy bear scene.#

This is the kitchen where we will be shooting, it is nice and small and perfect

for the scene.

As the kitchen isn't directly opposite the stairs we decided to

use the living room instead of the kitchen first for oneof the scenes, then

the girl goes into the kitchen, to go see the bear.

Props

The Sister's Teddy Bear

The sister could be seen as an immature person because she still owns a teddy bear and her sister believes she is too old to have one.

We have decided to use this teddy bear in our short film. We feel it has a neutral face and it would suit our film.

This teddy could be seen as the most feminine >

bear out of all of them. It's small, has a soft and fluffy texture to it and has tiny eyes which adds to it's 'cuteness'.

Necklace (jewelery) -

Given to the girl by her sister. We could possibly use a bracelet rather than a necklace.

This bracelet would be suitable for a chirpy young girl who >

enjoys to make herself 'look pretty'. She would be more than

likely to wear makeup and wear clothes which are both bright and eye catching.

< This is our chosen necklace. We have chosen this necklace because we feel that the heart connotes the love between the two siblings. 

This necklace is both simple and small which connotes that the two sisters do not need to give large and expensive gifts to show their sibling love for each other. >