Construction: Evidence Of Reflection (Last Recording)

During our last recording we made changes to help improve our footage to get the best grade as possible. This involved preventing any errors occurring along the way as we had in the past recordings. This resulted in us delegating clear instructions to each person in our team.

Like the last recording we decided to gather 3 people to play the roles in our horror opening. This time we got two boys, one girl and we excluded Sarah. One of the boys who played our role in the opening was our own member of the group, this was advantageous to us as Sam already knows the script fully and knew what to do to make our shots correct.

We learnt how to level the camera via a tripod properly, this reduced the shaking of the camera work during the recording of the scenes. This therefore helped time keeping as we didn't keep messing up the shots and we didn't have to take any shots more than 3 times. We learned how to focus the camera correctly which in result made all the shots looked more professional and clear.

Although this was our last recording, meaning any  mistakes would be irrelevant, if we had the chance to improve our construction of our horror opening we would make the following changes to resolve issues:

• Take evidence of filming in the corridor (First 5 shots)
• Make the text of the "DO NOT ENTER!" sign more professional or ominous
• Had less members of our group at the time of recording in the room to avoid distraction to the actors
• Have more dialogue to make it more realistic and lively
• Picked out what each actor would have wore specifically rather than each them wearing what they came into school with
• Put more props around our classroom setting to make it more believable that they were in a school environment
• Gather more retakes of Kai screaming so we have more shots to choose from when editing
• Used more methods to make the classroom seem more haunted, such as the AC turning on by itself or the door opening automatically.

In conclusion we feel that our recoding was the best we could produce with the deadlines we have been given, this is because our footage is of a good quality, everything flows fluently and fits perfectly in our editing process.

Construction: Evidence of Raw Footage (Last Recording)

This is a collection of all of our shots that we had taken for the third and final time for our opening. This involves all the mishaps and usable footage that we produced. We decided to take as many shots as possible (75) to ensure that when it came to the post production of our horror film opening we had enough content  to work with. As this is our last and most refines piece of footage we believe we can make the best opening, to the best of our ability.

Construction: Evidence of Filming Taking Place (Last Recording)

Just as last time, we took photographs of our procedure of when we where recording our horror opening. We understand it would be compulsory for us to show our evidence of our recording stage to be clear that we were the ones that recorded the opening.

The following pictures below shows every shot we took, containing roughly all the scenes and the things like the director explaining each sentence of dialogue to the cast (as well as showing them where to be), a part of our group gathering the footage for our establishing shot and  the camera man recording the scenes while a member of our group gives him advice and tips on what to do to ensure the shot was correct.

This first 2 images illustrates 3 members of our group gathering the first shot for our opening which will be a panning shot of the front school building, in this time we took several difference method of our establishing shot such as panning down and panning left to right, we also took this time to set up the tripod to make it level and adjust focus for the shot. The footage we recored was purposely in a different time period to our main opening because we wanted the day to specifically look natural and not dull, we understood that this would not affect versilimutude as we will use a transition from the building to inside the school.

This image shows 2 members of our group discussing how the shot will be taken and what the characters had to do the get the scene right

This image shows 2 member carefully watching the scene take place to see if everything is in shot and going as planned

This image shows us looking at our actor taking out his phone to check the time and seeing if there any fidgeting with his elbow hitting the tripod by mistake and if the phone was in focus and could clearly see the time

This image shows the camera man getting ready to focus and getting a clear close up and another member reading the shot list to tell our actor exactly what to do. This also contains and video of Marvin explain how his facial expression should be throughout the scene as he struggled to understand

 


This image shows the camera man again getting a close up of Kai's face while another person turns the lights on and off for the illusion that it is flickering.

This image shows the camera man extending the tripod for the one of the last scene being a long shot as well another member assuring that Kai understands what he has to do.

This image shows 3 members of our group helping out in the scene, 2 checking the camera and another carefully explain one of Kai's hardest roles .

Construction: Evidence of Reflection (Second Recording)

After we understood all the mistakes made in our first attempt of recording our opening, we made the several changes required to make our opening better. These changes included assigning roles to each member of our group. Such as choosing Sam and Pirooz to be in charge of sorting out props and scenes, and Marvin to be the director. While Lewis was responsible for recording the footage. 

The people we gathered where 2 girls and 1 boy to be the main character (Kai). We were unsuccessful getting a fourth character to record but this was not an issue as the script was easily altered, if it were two people, it would make our script and shot list confusing.

After seeing how bad the quality and stable our first recording was we decided to improve our equipment and get a DSLR camera to record with. Alongside our improved camera we decided a tripod was essential as our shots were very shaky and didn't seem like a professional recording.

We also considered changing our location to another room, but had no choice as we wanted the lockers and door to class to be within range to make editing seamless. We also added more crops such as books, bags and stationary equipment, this was because we wanted to make it look more realistic.

After recording for our second time we made a rough edit to spot any mistakes along the way, the following list shows all the faults we found in our second attempt:

• The camera was slightly tilted as it was not level on the tripod.
• The focus was off on the majority of the shots.
• The lighting in the classroom was too bright and did not contribute to our theme.
• Actors were not fully focused or prepared for the tasks needed in our scenes.
• Some scenes had characters looking into our camera during our scenes to make it seem that it looks like it was staged.
• The main character was confused when he was explained what he had to do making some scenes taking longer than they needed too.
• The battery was not fully charged before recording which lead us to having to recharge it during the middle of production.
• The time was limited this reduced the duration we had to record all our shots, this lead us to having to record another day which would not of worked as the characters could be wearing different clothes and maybe had a haircut, this would not have made sense in our footage.
• Our main character still did not look scared and occasionally grinned therefore they did not meet the role of our character.

After our second attempt of recording we still thought that it was not good enough, mainly because the camera was tilted and our main character was not a very good actor. Even if we decided to keep the footage and record again next time they would have to wear the same clothes, this would be difficult so we decided that recording for the third time was needed.

We learned from all the previous mistakes so that we were prepares and ready for the recording when we got there. After another week we were all ready and  went on to record for our third time.

Construction: Evidence of Raw Footage (Second Recording)

This is a collection of our second attempt at recording our horror opening. The video below is the behind the scenes of our recording which clearly shows how many mishaps and errors that occurred during filming. this video contains every shot that was taken, regardless if was going to be deleted or used in our final edit. This gave us a good understanding of what would needed to be changed when editing it for our final piece.

Construction: Evidence of Filming Taking Place (Second Recording)

As we did before, we took photos of our processes of recording our footage. We knew it would be necessary for our evidence part of our construction to show what we did to get our footage with help from some illustration on each picture.

The following images below show every photo we took, this contains almost all the scenes and shows things like the director explaining each line of dialogue to the cast (as well as showing them where they sit and go to, a member of our group getting a sign as a prop in the last scene and the camera man recording the scenes while a member of our group gives him advice and tips.

This first image shows our group organising how one of the first scenes will be done, me on the right telling the cast their lines of dialogue, Lewis on the middle getting ready to record (as he is more capable and knows how to work the camera better) and Cameron on the left advising the camera man on how he should do a shot.

This image shows our cast and member of our group reviewing the shot to ensure it went well and if they spot any mistakes that we should repeat the recording of the particular scene.

This image shows Marvin explaining the scene to each character as it was slightly complex and involves all three actors in the shot, this meant they all had to know exactly how to interact with each other and when to do so.

This images shows Cameron finding a sign to be printed as a prop with the text (Do Not Enter) in a scary font. This would be used in the the later scenes on Kai walking up to it

This image is of Lewis carefully recording our scene in which the 3 characters enter the classroom, whilst Cameron gives advice and reviews the recording to see if he spots any mistakes such as an actor looking into the camera. He was also in charge of counting down the camera man and actors of when to move.

Construction: Evidence of Reflection (First Recording)

In this post we reflected on everything that we had done in our first recording, we did this by making a rough edit of our footage which made it easier to spot all the things that went wrong and possible needed to be changes.

We noticed several mistakes in our recording and  this consisted of the following:

• Very shaky establishing shot
• People smiling to make it look like it was staged
• Actors looking into the camera
• Diegetic sound being unclear to hear in certain shots
• Setting of the classroom being unorganised and unprofessional
• No books or bags in front of actors to make it seem like they are studying
• Quality of the camera was very weak and unclear (unfocused)
• Lighting of some scenes were different to others so characters were hard to see
• Main character did not look scared and sometimes grinned
• Time was limited
• Shot list was not specific and complete
• Missing shots, meaning if the day looked different and we recorded again, it would not fit with our previous footage and not look right

After realising the number of mistakes that were made we decided to record for the second time and hope we can cancel everything that went wrong. For this it meant we had to gather and recruit new characters as some were in progress of doing mock examinations and our main character was severely ill and has no chance of coming in to record for us.

This also meant that we would have less time to edit as we had to wait a week to record again as the was only 2 periods in which all of our group members ans cast were available.

Construction: Evidence of raw footage (First Recording)

Below is a compilation of all the raw footage that was taken in our first attempt of filming for our two-minute opening. It contains each and every mistake we had made whilst filming every scene of our horror opening (be it from mistakes made by us or the actors); whilst it contains the footage we wanted to use to produce our opening. This footage gave us a good understanding of how we should record properly and what things she should look out for.

Construction: Evidence of Filming Taking Place (First Recording)

Before starting our recording we knew it would necessary for us to take pictures of us doing our recording to ensure there is evidence shown that we recorded. out of our group, Sam and Lewis volunteered to take pictures of our recording process

  

The images below show our process and stages of filming the raw footage needed to start the construction evidence. The images will show the filming process while the others are directing and setting up the scenes including telling the characters their dialogue just to make sure they fully understand what they going to say and do.

This Image is u first getting ready to record our 1st scene on our shot list

(Kai pulls out book from locker and view is from across the corridor)

This image is our 3rd scene being explained to the actors with use of our shot list and recorded

(Kai's friends walks up to locker to meet Kai)

This image is the recording of Kai going towards the classroom

unfortunately no more images were taken this recording as we underestimated time and how specific the shot list had to be