Production

Filming our crime drama
27/3/13 - 14/4/13
A couple of days before we finished school for the Easter holidays we filmed the school scene as we would not be able to do this during the Easter holidays. This scene shows Jessica and Danielle walking across the playground talking about Charlie Cooper, who is in fact a middle aged man called Paul but is pretending to be a teenage boy. We got every shot that we needed to get and as a group we work well and efficiently together, although after reviewing the shots we had taken our group had come to the decision that we were going to re-film the scene again. This is because it was hard to hear what the actors were saying when they were talking to each other as the camera was placed quite far away from the actors. Also the scene doesn’t look as professional as we had wanted. We are planning to re-film this scene as soon as possible to make sure that the quality of both the video and audio are better. I contributed to this task by helping to set up the camera and also film the scene, and I also contributed by giving the actors direction on where they should be and what they should be saying during the scene. I think that we could have prevented having to re-film this scene by thinking about how the sound would be affected if we moved the camera further away from the actors, and also if we thought about how loud the actors would have to speak so that we were able to hear them. Also instead of having to make the actors talking louder we could have used a boom mic and pole so that it would have picked up the audio better and it would have been better quality.
During the Easter holidays we filmed on three occasions. The first time we filmed was at my house, which was where we filmed the scene where Sarah wakes Jessica up for school and she then goes on her laptop to talk to Charlie Cooper (Paul) on Facebook. On this day of filming we only managed to get a couple of scenes filmed as the actors did not have much free time on that day. I believe that we all worked well together, and managed to get a lot of scenes filmed in the time that we had. Although I believe that we could have decided on a different day to film when the actors had more free time and therefore we could have filmed more scenes and finished filming quicker than planned. I contributed to this by helping to set up the camera, film and give direction to the actors on what they have to stay and where to stand in each scene.
The second time we filmed was at the same location. This time we filmed the rest of the scenes which were set in this location. These were the scenes where Jessica comes home from school and has a conversation with her mum (Sarah). She then has dinner and has a conversation with her mum about talking to strangers online, and then goes back upstairs to talk to Charlie Cooper (Paul) on Facebook about the conversation she has just had with her mum. I believe that our group worked effectively when filming these scenes as we managed to get everything filmed, although we were pushed for time at the end, and ended up having to rush a couple of the scenes. I contributed to this task by helping set up the camera, filming and again giving the actors direction. I believe that if we had more time when coming towards the end of filming we would have been able to film some scenes to a more professional standard, although overall I am happy with the way the scenes had turned out.
The third time we filmed was at Taylers house. Here we filmed the scene where Paul is typing on the laptop to Jessica pretending to be Charlie Cooper. I believe that when filming this scene the production team worked really well together as the scene that we filmed was good quality and we filmed the scene quickly and effectively. I contributed to the filming of this scene and also setting up the camera and giving the actor direction. Although to improve this scene I believe that we should have filmed this scene more than once just in case the scene we filmed got deleted or wasn’t at a high quality.
Overall I believe that all the scenes we have filmed are at a high standard and quality and we had filmed each scene effectively. Also every scene that we have filmed so far is suitable for our crime drama, although we have to re-film the school scene to ensure that it will be good quality and also suitable to be put into our crime drama. I believe that the production team worked well whilst filming every scene and we had all helped to either film each scene, set up the camera or give the actors direction.






Filming 19/4/13
Today we re-filmed the school scene when Jessica and her friend Danielle are talking about Charlie Cooper. Whilst filming I was responsible for holding the Boom mic over the two actors heads whilst they were talking so that we were about to hear them better. We filmed this scene a few times so that we were able to have options when deciding which one we wanted to include in our final crime drama production. We then went onto film an establishing shot of the school so that when watching our production the audience are able to know where the scene was set. I contributed to this task by giving the actors direction on where to standduring each scene and also holding the Boom mic to ensure that all dialogue was picked up, and understood clearly. I think that our group worked well together as we all contributed to the task we had set ourselves and also we were able to film quickly and what we filmed was done at a professional level. Although I believe that we could have improved this scene by giving the actors scripts so that they were able to memorise what they had to say before we began filming. Also I believe that we could have organised the scene better so that everybody was clear on what they had to do. Now that we have finished filming this scene all filming has been completed, and we can now go on to editing all of the footage.


Filming 3/5/13
Today we re-filmed the school scene which involves Jessica and Danielle having a conversation about Charlie Cooper. We decided to re-film this scene after getting feedback from our questionnaire and also from reviewing the footage as a group and deciding what parts we can improve. Whilst filming this scene we had to ensure that we have a range of shots from different angles of the same conversation. This then showed the conversation from both Danielle and Jessica’s point of view. I believe that this scene was more effective than the first time we shot it because the actors were sitting down and therefore we were able to pick up the sound better. Also by using the 180 degree rule we were able to capture the actors facial expressions better. Overall I believe that by re-filming this scene our crime drama is going to look more professional and also the audio will be a lot clearer than before. I contributed to this task by setting up the camera and also filming the majority of the shots which had to be re-filmed. I believe that as a group we worked well together on this task as we all contributed in some way, and also we got the filming done quickly and to the best possible standard, although to improve I believe that we could have filmed the scenes more than once to ensure that we had a range of shots to choose from.

 

Filming 7/5/13
Today we re-filmed all of the scenes which were set in ‘Jessica’s’ house. This included the scenes where Jessica gets up to go to school, when she goes on her laptop and talks to Charlie Cooper on Facebook and also the scene where she is having a conversation with her mum ‘Sarah’ in the kitchen.  When re-filming these scenes we made sure that we took a range of shots for each scene from different angles so that we had a choice of which shot we wanted to included, and also which shot looked the most professional. An example of this is when we filmed ‘Jessica’ on her laptop talking to Charlie Cooper, her mum ‘Sarah’ then comes in and tells her to get off her laptop and get ready for school. In this scene we shot Jessica on her laptop whilst Sarah was saying it, and then we shot the same scene but the camera was showing Sarah saying ‘get off that laptop and get ready for school’. This was effective as it shows both Jessica’s and Sarah’s point of view in the scene and it also shows Sarah’s facial expressions whilst saying it. Another time where we did this was when Jessica was having a conversation with Sarah during dinner about talking to strangers online. During the conversation we then shot Jessica’s facial expression after her mum Sarah says ‘I hope you’re not talking to anyone you don’t know’. We did this because it shows Jessica’s reaction to the conversation as during the shot you are mostly only able to see the back of her head. I contributed to this task by filming the majority of the scenes that we had to re-film and also occasionally giving the actors directions on where they had to stand and what they had to say. Whilst re-filming these scenes I believe that our production group worked well together as we all contributed by either filming, giving the actors direction or moving things around in the room. When we were given the SD cards they still have footage on them from other peoples crime drama productions, therefore there wasn’t much room left on the cards for our footage to be filmed. We wanted to film each scene three times so that we would have three different shots to choose from when coming to editing together our production, but we wasn’t able to do this as the SD cards were full. Next time we should check the cards and ensure that they are empty before taking them away so that we are able to film the scenes more than once.