Sonia's Production Log

Week One (5 Oct - 11 Oct)

In the first week, we had to complete our preliminary task. My group for the preliminary included myself, Mitali and Nikita. While Nikita took the role of filming the raw footage, me and Mitali edited. We used iMovie to cut and piece the footage together in order to show as effectively as possible match on action and shot reverse shot. We then uploaded it to YouTube. The preliminary task went well because not only did it allow me to practise my editing skills, but it allowed me to understand that the more types of shots involved, the more raw footage is needed. For example, in order to use shot reverse shot, the same conversation between Person 1 and Person 2 needs to be filmed three times: once as a two shot, once as a head shot of Person 1, and once as a head shot of Person 2.
Each of us in the group then had to analyse the preliminary, reviewing what we learnt from the experience and what we could have improved.

Week Two (12 Oct - 18 Oct)

In the second week, our official groups for the rest of the coursework were formed, and this included myself, Mitali, Ayaan and Shivani. Our first task as a group was to come up with a company name, and then form a logo and ident for it. As a group, we decided to call our company Pomegranate Studios, as we found it unique, and that the odd and random name may be attention grabbing. I created two suggestions for logos, and as a group we decided upon using Mitali's logo suggestion. We then made an ident.
We were also tasked with remaking the first minute of the opening of a film. We chose the film Do The Right Thing. Before we started any filming, the group came together to create a shot list, as well as deciding to split the filming into three sections: one for each costume used the first minute of the opening. I took the role of acting in the remake, and aiding Ayaan in the editing process. One may argue that as an actress in the remake, I did not learn much in the production process. However, this role allowed me to understand the lengthy process that goes into filming each shot, as well as learning that in order to ensure there are as little continuity errors as possible, filming doesn't necessarily take place chronologically. Ayaan also took the major role of camerawoman. Mitali took the role of directing, and her and Ayaan helped make sure I was in the correct positions. Something that could have improved our remake would be timing during filming. Some shots did not last as long as they did in the real film opening, (if they were too long, we could cut it) so when we edited, the opening did not match the timing of the real opening. This proves as something to learn from.
We each then had to analyse the shot by shot remake, looking at what we learnt and how we could have improved.

Week Three (19 Oct - 25 Oct)

In the third week, we began to discuss our own film opening. We first had to decide on a genre. We had to analyse the conventions of a particular genre and I chose horror. I analysed the film Paranormal Activity 2.
Each group in the class were tasked with choosing two potential genres, and our group chose fantasy and psychological thriller. From these, the group had to choose one, so we discussed the pros and cons of each. Eventually, we chose psychological thriller, as firstly, there would be less need for special effects than with Fantasy, which can be complicated and, if done wrong, can make the opening look cheap and tacky. Secondly, psychological thrillers can be created with a relatively small set, which makes location much easier to find.
I also looked at other student's film openings of the thriller genre to see if there was anything from there that would help me in later production, as well as highlighting mistakes that I could avoid. This also allowed me to practise my ability to constructively criticise and analyse media products.

Week Four (26 Oct - 2 Nov)

Now that we had chosen a genre, during Week Four, we had to analyse the opening of two films of the genre psychological thriller. I chose the films Chronicle and Coherence.
We then had to look at the target audience of and genre typecasting found in psychological thrillers. Me and Mitali researched this and presented our understanding of the target audience through a Facebook page and genre typecasting through a script.

Week Five (3 Nov - 9 Nov)

To research the opening of films, me, Shivani and Mitali looked at the opening credits of films. I looked at the film Coherence, presented through screenshots of each opening credit. I also did some research on iconography in psychological thrillers and found some images that are commonly associated with that genre. This proved useful as it allowed me to think about common themes and motifs found in psychological thrillers and apply them to how I could portray them in a film.

Week Six (10 Nov - 16 Nov)

The group was tasked with researching media theories. Each of us in the group took one theorist and I chose to research Todorov. His theory focussed on the story and narrative of films and suggests that there are always fixed stages to how a narrative plays out. I found this useful as it told me how a conventional film would be structured - perhaps if my group's film were to be structured differently it could be considered unconventional in that sense, and therefore seem more interesting. I did think about how an unconventional film may not be as appealing as it may confuse and be too complex for the audience, but considering our genre is a psychological thriller, we can assume that the audience should be prepared to be confused and to try and see things from various perspectives.
I also researched how class is represented in psychological thrillers, as well as how the film industry market psychological thrillers.

Week Seven (17 Nov - 23 Nov)

In this week, we realised we were finishing our research and were moving onto production. Before this, each member of the group conducted some research into directors of psychological thrillers to gain insight into how psychological thrillers have be portrayed in the past, as well as when and why they were successful or not.
Each of us came up with two story ideas for the opening, then choosing one of the ideas and writing a first draft of a script for the film opening each.

Week Eight (24 Nov - 30 Nov)

After deciding whose script to use, decided what job roles each member of the group would take. Since my story idea was chosen, I thought it would be appropriate that I should be the director. This isn't to say all screenwriters are directors, because this is not true, but since I wrote it, I had an idea of how I wanted to visually and aurally portray the story. We forged a treatment for our story. We then did a script breakdown in order to better understand each scene and detail. In this week, I wrote the second draft of the script to the opening of Echoes.

Week Nine (1 Dec - 7 Dec)

This week, the group had to look at scripts and the conventions of film scripts. Each of us had to find and annotate the first two minutes of a script.
I then wrote the final draft of the Echoes. Using the final draft, the group had to complete tasks, investigating character and plot. I did a character analysis, which allowed me to develop the character's personalities.

Week Ten (8 Dec - 14 Dec)

This is when we first visited our options for a location. The set would be the interior of a house - we didn't need more than one location - Shivani found a location that would suffice. We also looked at another location, but found we couldn't use it (explained in recce). A third possibility was found but we decided against it.
Me and Mitali looked at costume and props for our characters, discussing availability, affordability, appropriateness, and symbolism of props, colours, etc.

Week Eleven (15 Dec - 21 Dec)

In order to make sure everything could be shot smoothly on the shoot day, the group had to produce a storyboard and a shot list. We printed out three by three square grids on paper - Mitali drew in the first few shots and I drew the rest. Following the shot list, we needed to make a shot blocking sheet in order to put our shots from the shot list into the location we would use. A shot blocking sheet was vital as it made sure objects, people, or us, the crew, or our shadows, weren't blocking anything/anyone or in the shot.

Week Twelve (22 Dec - 28 Dec)

This week, Mitali and Shivani created a risk assessment document, which I then put into a graph, and added in case of emergency details. The group also produced a production schedule for our test shoot day which was scheduled for the 20th January.

Week Thirteen (29 Dec - 4 Jan)

---

Week Fourteen (5th Jan - 11th Jan)

---

Week Fifteen (12th Jan - 18th Jan)

---

Week Sixteen (19th Jan - 25th Jan)

We went to our location for our test shoot. This gave us a more in depth idea of the spatiality of our location, props and character's as well as how it would turn out on camera. After looking through our test shoot, we reviewed it and decided on appropriate changes to improve the film opening. For example, we decided to remove the part of the opening where Jatin spits out a piece of food as it seems a bit comical rather than the disturbing and "in your face" impression we were going for. The shot where Jatin picks up the food was also much more difficult to create than we initially thought, and so we could only fit in Jatin's legs in the test shoot when his whole body was meant to be in the shot in our visualisation of it.

Week Seventeen (26th Jan - 1st Feb)

During this week, on the 31st of January, we had our shoot day. However, when we imported our footage onto Adobe Premier Pro for editing, we found that some parts of the footage were missing and several pieces of footage we did have were strangely out of focus. This means that we have to reshoot.

Week Eighteen (2nd Feb - 8th Feb)

On the 2nd of Feb, we discovered that our location was no longer available for a reshoot, so we had to find a new and appropriate location fast.
UPDATE: We have found a back up location which suits our film opening. A bonus is that it is much closer to home than our initial location so travel time has been reduced significantly.

Week Nineteen (9th Feb - 15th Feb)

On the 10th, we travelled to our new location for our final (hopefully) shoot. We discussed any changes needed for our script to fit the new location, which included the removal of the section of the script where Jatin looks into his empty bedroom, due to the fact that the upstairs hallway was smaller than we had anticipated. We then filmed our opening - I directed and had a minor role in the camera operating.
I did the majority of the editing, using Adobe Premier Pro. I enjoyed this process, and it also allowed me to familiarise myself with software I hadn't used before. I created background music with Ayaan, using GarageBand, which is heard alongside a layer of copyright free music. The group also used various objects to try and create foley sound, which we used for the car crash sound in the beginning of the opening. We also had our actress say some words which we used in the beginning of the opening too.

Week Twenty (16th Feb - 22nd Feb)

We finished the editing process and after our teacher looked over our work, we uploaded our final edit of our film opening to YouTube, and embedded it into our blog. The group now have to start on our evalution.