Changes in the main task

After many hours of work and effort, me and my group have now finished our main task. Overall, I am impressed of what we have achieved. However the final product which was produced was nothing like I imagined and this was due to all the changes we made from the initial pitch. There were a variety of reasons for these changes and they were made in all three areas of production, pre-production, production and post production. In this post I will go through all the changes we made and why they were made. 

1. The Actor

Initially we had cast Daniel Cadoret, as mentioned earlier in my blog, to play the main character. We did go out filming once with Daniel and he did a good job at presesenting the character we wanted. However after this it became apparant that after this seesion he was unavialable for filming when we needed him due to what he had planned. Of course we respected this as he was only helping out through kindness so if he has other plans he should definetly do them rather than go out of his way to help us. Therefore we had to find another actor star in the opening sequence. As mentioned before on my blog, I was the other choice to be the actor so I took up the role. Overall this didn't affect the overall piece as the audience didn't know this and the only drawback was having to re-film three or four shots. 

   

2. The ending

When we first thought of the initial ending, there was going to be a lot more going on and was even going to involve another actor. However half way through the production process, we realised that there were two problems with this ending. Firstly, the ending would invovlve the character being shot, and if this were to happen it would of closed a lot of doors to who this character was. However the main reason we changed his is due to timing. With what he had already filmed, the piece was already two mintues long so adding an ending which would be just as long would mean our piece would be going gainst the brief of making at most, a two and a half minute opening sequence. Therefore we had to go back to the drawing board and rethink our ending. This took two attempts as the scond idea for an ending was also too ambitious for the little time we had left for it. What we producedin the end,  I feel was sufficent to work as the ending and honestly would've been better than the ending we had planned in the first place.



This is the initial ending in stroy board form, with the car pulling up and the driver then shooting
the main character.



3. A couple of shots

Our shotlist was something which, as time went by, we struggled to follow. This was for two reasons. Firstly the shots we had in mind may have been overly ambitious however the main reason was that once we were on set we realised that some shots we had planned would not be as effective as we first hoped. however the location also gave as a lot of inspiration for different shots and some of which wouldn't of worked without what we had available. A good example is there was part of the wall which had fallen away and we took advantage of this with one of the shots. This wouldn't of been possible to plan if we didn't know the wall was like this.



When we first did our storyboard, this is the shot we intended for when the
character hits the creature, and it was going to be a simple mid shot. However, when
we got round to filming we figured that a worms eye shot shot looking up at the character
would be better and have more of an effect.









Trip to the BFI.

On Wednesday we visited the British Film Institute on the London Southbank. We visited yesterday as there was an event being held on how youth is interpreted through media and film. The day started with a presentation by Matthew Hall on the growth and change of teenagers and youth over the years as well as how film has shown this. There was then a screening of the film 'My Brother, The Devil.' followed by a Q&A with one of the producers, Julia Godzinskaya. Overall, the day was fantastic as it gave us an in depth look at how media and film portrays the young in society.




The lecture on youth in media.

This lecture, which was presented by Matthew Hall, focused on the way in which film and media present the youth and how that view has changed throughout the years. He started at the very beginning when the teenagers first began to appear. This was because before, children were expected to suddenly become adults with no transition in between. We then carried on to talk about how the new group of younger people wanted to break free of everyday life and enforce their new formed society on the people of Britain. The whole point of the lecture however, was to show how media is used to present this. An example used in the lecture was "Quadrophenia" which is a film that looks at the rivalry between the 'mods' and the 'rockers' in the 1960's. The clip is the same as we watched on the day. It's a good clip to look at as it shows the youth being rebellious and not caring for others in society. We then went on to look at how youth is presented in this day and age, and to put it bluntly, it was bleak. The example we looked at was kidulthood which looks at all the common problems which faces the youth nowadays, such as teenage pregnancy, bullying, drugs, sex etc.

My Brother, The Devil.

After the lecture and a break for lunch, we were presented with the film 'My Brother, The Devil.' which was a low budget film directed by Sally El Hosaini. It was related to what we had done before, as it had a large focus on youth growing up in lower class areas such as Hackney. It did a really good job at presenting youth in a variety of different ways. As well as covering the actual youth, it covered other things that a youth may face in any enviroment such as bullying, sexuality and so on. The film in itself was an amazing film especially with the budget that it had. To the right is a trailer of the film. After the film had finished, One of the producers, Julia Godzinskaya, came in for a Q&A about the film and what the message was behind it.  

Overall, I really enjoyed visiting the British Film Institute as I felt it gave me an insight into the message behind media and film and we got to watch a good film with a deep message.  

Fourth day of filming

On the fourth and last day of productive filming, we finished off all the shots that were left to do as well as re-shooting shots which were not as good as we first thought. The initial shots we filmed this day were most of the shtos outside of the compund, including the follow shot. As well as there shots, the shots we refilmed are the panning shots of the character entering and leaving the building and the basic mid shot within the building. Unfortunatly we did not film a video diary when we were on set so instead I shall show so you a few snapshots of the shots we filmed.

A change of plan

Recently we have been rethinking the ending of our opening sequence, as what we had planned originally may not work how we hoped. At first, we were going to end ou piece with the main character being shot by a mysterious person in attempt to shock the viewer. However, after some thought we realised this will close a lot of doors to what the main film will be about as it gets into the action to quickly. After consideration, we thought a better idea may be a montage after the character leaves the compound walking through a variety of different areas to emphasise how alone he is. Along with this, we would like the final shot to be him looking over a dessolate, lonely landscape, preferably a built up one to show what the character is going to have to overcome during the rest of the film. By doing this we will have to change the beginning as well. We were thinking that the actor could be walking down the road and hear some strange sound which could well be something alive, and then in the very last shot you would hear the sound again. This will also link with the worm eye shots used for the rat part of the piece, to build a false sense of tension.

I went looking for potential locations for the final scene yesterday, there is quite a large hill which, on a clear day, you can see Oxford in the distance as well as a village in the foreground. This would work well as you can clearly see the obstacles our character will have to overcome. Underneath is a few pictures of the view, its not great as it was a rainy day but I've been there before when it was clear and know that it would be ideal.