14/9/2011 - Update

Summer Holidays
Throughout the summer holidays we have been working on tasks concerning the planning of our film. Chris is still creating the animated story boards which should be done by October. We managed to complete and put together the Textual Analysis research showing the films that have influenced us. Chris has also evaluated the Twilight: New Moon film poster. These were all added on to the blog when we got back to school.

Losing a Member of the Group
Luke has dropped Media Studies as a subject and therefore is not part of our group anymore; occasionally he was still helping us with filming and planning locations till the end of last week.

Filming
We have completed filming our project and we should be finished with editing by Monday 19th September. The filming was very successful; we managed to build on our skills from last year and capture effective shots with the help of Charlotte.

In Progress
Mark is now currently completing the Audience research before the editing and the poster is complete, so we are able to target a certain age range. Another analysis of a teaser poster is being done by Chris and collecting all other documents such as the callsheet and equipment list from before we started filming will be posted on the blog soon.

6/7/2011 - Update

Today, Chris has been working on the poster analysis. He is using a Twlight poster as there is good emotions being protrade from the characters. Mark has been working on the textual analysis for our research films while I have been uploading our second short film research as well as updating other posts with information or pictures. Soon the textual analysis will also be uploaded.

29/6/2011 - Luke

Over the past few media lessons, I have been  viewing short films for our reseach. I found a few but in the end i chose two that have good editing techniques and camera angles used. I will upload the information about the short films as well as how they relate as research for our short film.

17/6/2011 - Filming

We began filming yesterday afternoon between 3:30 - 5:00. We filmed the 2nd scene of three which involved Lily (the woman being assaulted) coming home, ignoring her fiancé and going up stairs, in to the bathroom and crawling up in the shower after wrecking the room.

Firstly we took a short take of the shower being turned on for later in the scene.

We then began by taking a practise shot of the scene with James (Chris) and Lily (Charlotte) walking in ignoring her fiancé. At first we found this quite difficult because their was limited space for the camera sitting on the tripod. Chris had to walk over it which was seen as a safety hazard. Charlotte couldn't hear Mark (Director) shout action from outside so Luke had to knock on the door.

When it came to the actual shooting with both characters dressed up, everyone had an understanding of what was happening and the scene went very well. We took about 4 shots of film to get it right and by doing this we were able to compare which footage was the best. We feel Chris and Charlotte played their part well and at one point you are able to see the true emotion on James' face. The lighting was difficult to get right in this scene as first it was quite dim and after opening a few door and using artificial light we were able to make it light enough for the camera.

We then filmed Chris running after Charlotte up the stairs, after going through it twice, we were able to get the footage as the camera rotate following the two characters. As the camera came round to the bathroom door where Lily enters, the door is slammed with Chris on the other side. We felt this was effective as it showed the urgency and fear from James.

The next shot was Chris speaking from outside the door, this took a few shots and Chris explored his emotion as he put on a sympathetic voice. He then collapses to the ground as the camera remains in it's place showing Chris has become more vulnerable and worrying for Lily. We then do a separate low angle eye line shot of him running his hands through his hair to show his frustration.

The next part we filmed was in the bathroom and this took a few separate shots to get it right. The lighting was just right as it was dark suggesting the sorrow with a bit of light from the window. Chris suggested that Charlotte began by turning from the window and Mark followed that idea with her throwing toiletries around. We got some old toiletries and removed any thing that could break e.g. glass to make the set safe. This was done well however for the first shooting Charlotte backed in to the camera unaware where it was. After going through what was happening again, Charlotte was able to carry out the scene playing her part fantastically showing anger and frustration.

We allowed Charlotte to take the camera for the next shot of her stepping in the shower so the audience were able to see what she is seeing from her view, giving them a sense of how she is behaving and what she feels. We allowed her to take up this role so we got the right height and movement. The shower scene was difficult because we were only able to do it once otherwise Charlotte would already be soaked and unable to play her part again from the start. We ran the footage for about a minute with Charlotte really exaggerating her role showing signs of her fear as she cries and screams. We directed Charlotte throughout the footage of what to do and we will cut our voices out during editing. We felt Charlotte was the best choice for this part and played it extremely well because she has had experience in plays that are quite Psychological.

We recorded a seperate shot of the shower with the background noise included. We will take the sound from this footage to overaply it with the shower scene. This is to make the shower more clear as it plays with the cresendo of the soundtrack.

We finally filmed the take of James noticing that Lily has arived home in the early hours of the morning and as he gets up he jokes about her appearance.

Overall the filming was very successful and all the actors played their part well. Luke took pictures of the locations and the charaters all dressed up for our poster. He also took pictures of setting up, reading through the script and during action. This will be used to show evidence of our post production. We all enjoyed filming and feel we have got all the footage for the second scene a part from one shot of Lily outside approaching the house. However this can be done at a later date.

15/6/2011 - Luke

Today I decided to research more into our research films, this meant gathering information about them films and saying how they would relate to what we are trying to create.

13/6/2011 - Luke

Recently I have been writing up the initial ideas and then given them to mark, where he has then made the document look a lot more presentable, as well as adding his own ideas that he had discussed.
I have also been going onto other groups blogs and adding comments, but this has become a slow process at the current time, due to a problem with posting comments. Once this is sorted however I will get round to posting comments, as for now I have been writing a draft of what to post on the other groups blogs.

Example of a comment we posted on B.R.O.M.A's media blog giving them feedback.

10/5/2011 - Presenting Our Pitch

We have presented our pitch in front of a small audience while being filmed (seen from the video previously posted) and we explained what our filmwas about, the audience we are aiming for, our research films and the general information about the film including the genre, directors etc.

Our pitch lasted for approximately 3 minutes as we took it in turns to explain each part. Chris began by explaining the plot in depth so the audience would clearly understand it. Mark then went over the general information and the research films and covered the scene that would influence our ideas, including shots and camera techniques. Luke finally went over the audience explaining who would most likely watch our film and how we would aim for a young audience when marketing.

The pitch was quite fluent and we did cover most areas of the film we are going to create, giving the audience a full understanding of what to expect. Chris was full of ideas and elaborated on these when we were questioned after the pitch, explaining all the camera shots, angles and ideas we had.

We had a lot of feedback from our pitch showing the good and bad points that we will consider in the future of post production:

• Consider that it is a touchy subject choice to cover (sexually assault)
• Charlotte who is playing Lily Road will have to put on a good performance, make sure she is aware what is happening
• Courageous idea that many think will work well
• Do not video long shots of the woman being sexually assaulted but more short takes giving of the idea that this is happening
• Interact with her life earlier on at the beginning of the movie so we can see the drastic change she under takes 

One of the main ideas that we do seriously need to consider is the concept of the assault. Many of the audience raised the awareness that Charlotte must fully understand what is being done and the area has to be warned that filming is taking place. We explained that people will be standing either end of the tunnel where we will be filming and we will warn the neighbours and pedestrians around. We will get consent of Charlotte if we have any trouble with police.

After saying our thoughts of how to avoid any issues and going over our film plot and ideas, the audience agreed and felt the film is a very good choice.

8/6/2011 - Pitch Presentation

This is our pitch presented to a small audience.

27/5/2011 - Making the Blog

During the lesson we created a blog for our media course. It will be used to cover a timeline of events and the progress throughout making the film.
Mark was the main contributor in making the blog as he set up the basics, then as a group we decided on a theme and a short description of our group on our profile.
The only part we found difficult when making the blog was understanding the whole difference between the blog. it self and the profile page However over time we established that the profile would show what CLM Media Group would be covering and who we are rather than our blog simply showing the tasks we undertake.
This will be updated regularly as we plan, create and evaluate our film.