Pre Shoot

Before we started the shoot we double checked that we had all the equipment necessary, after we had checked everything we went off to location

When we arrived on location, we first sat and ate lunch and eased the actresses into it, we decided to shoot our film backwards starting off indoors and working our way outside.   

Actors/Actresses

We scouted across for actresses, we contemplated using friends and family, however we was able to find some actresses from the performing arts course.

We used one younger girl and one older girl. The younger girl played the daughter and the older played the mother.

There was not a need for anyone else.

Equipment

For our film, we used the following:

• Canon XF100
• Shotgun Microphone
• Dead Cat
• Tripod 
• Reflector

We used a Canon XF100 to shoot our film, ensuring that we kept consistent with lighting throughout the whole film.

We used the shotgun microphone to record outside sounds, even though we didn't use any of it, but we wanted to keep the option open so if we did want to use them we had them to use, the dead cat was used from wind protection.

The tripod was to ensure that we kept a steady camera through the whole film, making sure we didn't suffer from shaky cam etc.

Montage Editing

Montage is a film editing technique.

It is a series of shots which have been edited into a condense space, time and information.

Montages aren't used to create emotion. They are used to inform rather then make the audience feel, they make the audience know.[1]

Using montage editing you are able to tell a part of a story quicker cutting something down from 30 minutes to 3 minutes. When done properly the audience should know what is happening on the screen, rather than feel for the character at that point.

Examples of Montage Editing:

This is a good montage edit, from this short sequence of clips you can see what his character is about, and how he is in the position that he is. It eases into the film easier.

This is a slightly different example of montage editing but it holds the same principles, it avoids making the audience feel anything but portrays a story quickly, and informs the audience what the narrative is.




[1] - http://www.elementsofcinema.com/editing/montage.html

Location

After discussing potential locations, we have decided to use Kirsty's house.

Because Kirsty being female and our main character being female, we thought it would be the most sensible option, as she will have the girly furniture etc.

Rational take 2

After taking some time to rethink our idea, we have decided to do a drama.

The drama will be about a young girl who is getting bullied at college, she can't take it anymore. She writes a letter to her mother, and leaves it for her mother to read, she then goes to her room and proceeds to kill herself. Her mother comes in and reads the letter, she then rushes upstairs opens the door and the film will cut.

We are currently in the processes of drawing the storyboards, and deciding a location.

Rational

For this project we came up with an idea.

Recently our university has merged with another university, we was going to create a short film to get people's opinions about this.

We planned to film on 4 of our campuses, in Dynevor, Mount Pleasant, Townhill and Carmarthen.

Gathering opinions from students, about how we was told it wouldn't effect our studies, what negative effects it had on students and what positive effects it also had.

We was also going to ask lecturers how it had effected them, with course's having a complete overhaul and the way everything that they knew and was comfortable with changed. 

After discussion with our lecturer about this, it was too controversial to do. We would risk showing the university in a bad light. It would have been a fight to get this project working as it would have had to go to a ethics committee, in which we would have had to pitch the idea to them, wasting a lot of time.

Unfortunately because of this push back we now have 2 weeks to think of a new idea.