Media Studies Coursework : 2016

This is my clapper board, which we decided to use during filming. I used this as I thought it looks professional and that it would help us keep count of all the shots we have filmed. For every shot I would hold it up to the camera and then snap it and say action, this was useful as it told the actors and camerman to start filming. It was also useful as during the editing process we knew which shots we used and which shots we didn't.

These are log papers of all the shots that we filmed. Every time we would film, I would write down the shot, how many takes we did, a description of the shot and then put no or yes (N/Y) depending on if we used it in the final cut. This was useful as it helped us keep track of all the shots we filmed and how many takes we did for each shot.

Monday 11th January 2016-
We decided to start from the beginning as we thought it would look better, since our first cut is not as good as we wanted it to be, even though its not the full opening. We filmed shot 6 and 2 again, along with some additional shots which we did not include in the storyboard as they were ideas that came to us during filming. Firstly, we filmed shot 2 but changed it, so instead of the executioner sitting on a chair as a young boy, looking upset. He is now kneeling on the floor ripping up the photos of his victims. This is similar to shot 6 where he is surrounded by the victims photos, however we did these as separate shots so when we edit it we can cut parts out easily. For these shots we filmed in the drama studio as shown in the images below. However, we couldn't get the spotlights to work, so instead we used a bright light along with some different coloured tissue paper to act as filters. This worked quite well as we got the right shades of red, but then on the other hand it didn't, as for some shots we couldn't get the right lighting and therefore had to have it with normal lighting or maybe edit filters onto it.

For the additional shots we now have 3 potential victims, this includes Adam, Kate and myself. In our first cut we have a close up of Adams face flicking at the start, we thought it would look better with having more potential victims so it could flick to different close ups of all three of their faces, this will show the variety of people that the executioner kills. Another additional shot was having all three victims being covered in a black cloak with a rope around their neck, as if they were going to be hanged. We only used Adam for this shot but then since you can't see his face we are going to edit it to make it look like all three of the victims. We also had a shot where Adam is sitting in the rocking chair screaming and shouting as the executioner is coming closer to kill him, we thought this would be good as we don't actually have footage of the executioner coming for his potential victims. In addition to that we decided to capture shadows of the executioner killing Adam as we thought it looked very dramatic. In this shot we just captured a shadow of Adam on the rocking chair and then the executioner stabbing him with a sword. We then decided to have Adam in the rocking chair again, this time dead with fake blood on him. After that we filmed a shot of myself in the rocking chair tied up, like Adam, dead as well. Overall, I feel these shots are much better than before as we decided to give Joe, who plays the role of the executioner a bigger mask as the one we used last time didn't fit that well.

Tuesday 12th January 2016-

Whilst editing our work in class as a group, we thought that the footage we already had looked a lot more like a trailer than an opening cut. This was because our footage was not continuous, it would just cut from one shot to another, as if we were showing different parts from the film. After that we then decided to shoot some scenes at the church to make it more like an opening cut. We had Adam play the potential victim which is being followed by the executioner, so all our shots that day revolved around that idea. However, this is not shown on our storyboard as we came up with it during filming. We took multiple shots of the executioner following Adam. We thought these shots would make more of a storyline and then make sense of the other shots, which we already had. We have the camera panning across the church and graveyard, which is what we intended to have as shot 1 from the beginning, as we thought it was a good shot to put our credits in. We also shot a scene where the executioner captures Adam and knocks him out then drags him to the door of the church, to make it look like he was taking him to his layer, where he kills people. However, since we couldn't exactly film inside the church we decided to use our shots in the drama studio from the other day as the layer of the executioner. I think this time we paid more attention to the small details, for example Jaden, who was filming, did a close up of the executioners hand as he brought the knife out. This shot was so simple, but very effective. As the executioner was dragging Adam, we tried to achieve a dutch tilt angle, personally I think it looks very good and makes the image look distorted.