Here is our music video.

Here is the outside panel of my digipak album cover.

Here is the inside panel of my digipak album cover.

Here is the inside panel of my digipak album cover.

Here is a link to my artist's website. Please click on the image below to enter the website.

Monday 6 February 2017

R+P Post 18: Our test shoot

Our group definitely wanted to do a test shoot before we did a main shoot for our film opening, because we decided that if any problems with what we had planned, the test shoot would reveal them, giving us time to improve upon our final idea before we did our main shoot.

In preparation for the test shoot, we created a shoot board. We were provided with a template in which we could complete the shoot board, and we decided that it would be beneficial for us to use it. The template broke down each shot into the time, the shot number, the date and location, the action and dialogue, the actors involved and the roles of the crew, also including columns for the number of takes and the best take (to be filled in on the test shoot day). We found this template would be very useful because it condensed several documents worth of information on one easy to follow table.

We decided to split the workload between us to create the shoot board, each of us taking about four pages each. It was decided that we would organise the shoot board based on character; because there are a lot of characters being interrogated during our opening, we thought that going through the shots character by character would help save time, what with the character's never leaving their position at the table, rather than switch out characters and doing it purely by the camera set up. Also, because we had four external actors outside of our media group, we decided to put their scenes first so that they didn't have to wait as long to leave.

Page 3 of our Test Shoot Board
Our media teacher suggested that we could shoot the whole of each conversation between the detective and the teens in a master shot. We decided that this would be a good idea, because it would mean that if a certain shot did not turn out as planned, we would have the master shot as a backup. It also allowed the actors to rehearse their lines and get a grasp of their characters and their situation in the scene. 

Once we'd decided on the order we wanted to film the shots, it was simply then a matter of filling in the rest of the table. For the action/dialogue column, we decided it would be better to have visual evidence, so we took photos of the shots from our storyboard to provide an image of the shot we wanted. This benefited us because having a large number of characters meant that we had a number of actors outside of our media group who weren't as familiar with the action of our film opening, and it was easier for them to see what they needed to do rather than read it.


We also made sure that we organised who was on camera or directing for each shot. This was useful for two reasons: for one, it meant that we saved time exchanging roles on the shoot day, and secondly, it meant we shared out the workload of being on camera etc. For instance, I managed to get a good chance filming by being scheduled to shoot a lot of the close ups, as my role in the opening meant I was rarely not acting.

Me on camera duty

The test shoot went well and we had a lot of good things come from it. The actors got to grips with their characters very well and even though we have decided to change round some of the actor's roles to fit their characters better, everyone involved now has a good idea of the story. The lighting was good for the most part, save for one shot which required a bit more light exposure. 


The test shoot helped us discover what needed improving for the main shoot. We discovered a few flaws with our shoot board; we discovered that a lot of time could be saved by rearranging the order that we took shots if there was the same camera set up. For instance, the quick cuts between Tyrone, Lucy and Raj in the latter half of our opening could have been filmed consecutively, as it would look better to keep the camera in the same set up for these shots. 

As we had scheduled for these shots to be done at different times, the set ups do not look consistent, predominantly in light exposure

Also, we discovered that some of the equipment we hired for the shoot did not work as we would've hoped. We received a dolly so that we could make smooth pans and arcs, but unfortunately, the floor of the garage where we were filming was too bumpy to make the pan smooth - the wheels snagged sometimes and made a loud noise as it rolled across the floor, which distracted from the dialogue of the scene. 

This was one shot where we planned to use the dolly. As you can see, the camera is very shaky and this was because to reduce the noise created by the dolly, we had to lift the camera a little, which gave it a very handheld look.

We have decided on an alternative to our arc for the main shoot, where we will try and use a pan instead with the camera grounded by a tripod. 

Although this was largely improvisation, this is the new idea we had instead of using the revolve we had initially wanted using the dolly.

We received feedback from our group discussions and from our teachers, and have decided upon a list of things to improve for our main shoot:
  • Switch the actors who play Cherish and Lucy
  • Alter script so that Cherish has more screen time
  • Fix the jump cut on the tilt when Tyrone changes with Simon with grading and closer editing to make it less noticeable
  • Alter script to have more detective jargon (e.g. "murder case inquiry")
  • Make the detective more energetic, as if he is ready to start the case - frustrated, eager rather than bored, tired. Reflect this in his costume; give him a blazer and make him smarter by not rolling up his sleeves.
  • Shorten Screen Gems indent
  • Have music playing over studio indents
  • Add lighting on foot shot 
  • Give the audio recorder more of a function in the scene
  • Improve the quality of the zoom in on the detective at the end
On the test shoot day, we worked efficiently to finish filming by the wrap time we had arranged for ourselves, and we ended up wrapping up on time at 4:30. All in all, I think we worked well together and managed to produce a decent product. Although our product is a lot longer than the two minutes stated in the brief, we are not going to cut anything for now, as we think it's better to go into the main shoot with too much footage rather than too little.

No comments:

Post a Comment