Summary of filming

Filming day one:

Our first day of filming was quite unsuccessful. The weather was quite drowsy which meant it was hard to film. The first time we filmed was in January therefore it was rather cold, and we had to film in costume designed for summer. However we did manage to get enough footage to make our rough cut, but it was short. In the end none of the footage from our first day of filming was used in our final cut. 

 

Filming day two:

 

We had a more successful filming day the second time round. We were able to get most of the shots for the scene where Rosie and Alice meet. Also the weather was a lot better which made our film look like it was summer time rather than winter.

 

Filming day three:

We filmed the journey part all in one go. It was a sunny therefore it made it a lot easier for us to film. We chosen a remote area to ensure we wouldn't get people constantly interfering with our filming. We now had enough footage for our final cut.

Filming day four:

 

After watching our first cut we decided to go and re-film some shots as they didn't look as good as we imagined and didn't portray the image we wanted. On our last day of filming we shot some more scenes that feature both Alice and Rosie.

Rough cut

This is our rough cut. It took longer than we expected to create our rough cut therefore it’s less than 80% finished. We forgot to unlink the audio in our rough cut, in our final video the only dialogue will be narration alongside music.

Our teacher as well as other class member gave us feedback on how to improve however it was hard for them to judge what our final edit would look like as it was under 80% finished. The key points to improve on was audio (add in the narration and music), titles (position them differently and add more actors) and change a scene.

Costumes featured

We did a lot of research into what costumes we should wear in our opening, as they needed to fit in with the decade we were trying to portray. To the left is Rosie, her costume consists of a cream blouse and black dress with her hair in a half up and down style. 

In the image to the right you can see our film’s main character Alice. She’s wearing denim like button up skirt with a vintage looking blouse which really ties in with the era our film is set in.

Both of the costumes were chosen as they portrayed the age of the characters, young teenagers from the 1960’s.

Props featured in our opening

For the most part of our opening sequence the only person to be visible is Alice riding her bike through country roads and paths. Alice’s bike is the only prop used in the opening. Luckily we had access to a bike that looked like it was from the 60’s, the era in which our film is set in.

Here’s an example of the bike used:

Final filming locations

When we initially decided on our film locations we didn't take into account how long it would take to get there with the equipment we needed to be able to film. For our rough cut we filmed at one location which can be seen below:

The problem with filming the whole of our opening in this area was there wasn’t enough pathway/road to film the journey part of our film. When we re-watched our rough cut we decided to go re-film the journey in a different location. We all agreed to keep location for the rest of our opening as we liked the look of the miniature field.

The new location we decided on for the journey is indicated in the image below by a pink line. This path was a lot longer than the previous one we used, also no street lights or cars were visible meaning it fit perfectly with the time period in which our film is set in. This location looks a lot better than what the previous one did in the rough cut.

Source: Google maps

Risk assessment

I produced a risk assessment to ensure our filming went as smoothly as it could.

What are the potential problems?	What measures have been taken to prevent this from happening?	Level of risk (1-5)
The battery for the camera could die.	To take two sets of spare batteries with us when filming.	4
Flat tyre on one of our bikes	Have a spare bike for	4
Weather: Rain	Check weather forecasts before planning to film	3
Cars/modern features being visible	Film in remote areas	2

Shot list

We created a shot list to help when filming. Shot lists enable you to get the shots you need quickly as you've already planned ahead. We did all the shots we planned from our storyboard and shot list however we added more that we thought of on the day.

 

This is our shot list:

Shot number: One
Shot description: A blackbird flying across the sky.
Shot location: A field in Gunthrope
Shooting date: 4th March
Shooting time: Afternoon
Shot requirements: The camera pans across the sky following a blackbird flying.
Actors: N/A
Props: N/A

Shot number: Two
Shot description: Alice biking down a long path. 
Shot location: Path located in Glinton
Shooting date: 18th February
Shooting time: Midday 
Shot requirements: Long shot of Alice biking
Actors: Alice
Props: Bike

Shot number: Three
Shot description: Alice entering the field to meet Rosie
Shot location:  Field in Gunthrope
Shooting date: 11th February
Shooting time: Midday
Shot requirements: Long shot panning across Alice entering the field
Actors: Alice
Props: Bike

Shot number: Four
Shot description: Two shot of Alice and Rosie sitting down
Shot location: Field in Gunthrope
Shooting date: 11th February
Shooting time: Midday
Shot requirements: Two shot of Alice and Rosie laughing and talking together
Actors: Alice and Rosie
Props: Bike in the background


Shot number: Five
Shot description: Over the shoulder shot of Alice and Rosie speaking
Shot location: Field in Gunthrope
Shooting date: 11th February
Shooting time: Midday
Shot requirements: Over the shoulder shot
Actors: Alice and Rosie
Props: Bike in the background


Shot number: Six
Shot description: Extreme close-up
Shot location: Field in Gunthrope
Shooting date: 11th February
Shooting time: Midday
Shot requirements: Extreme close-up of Alice laughing
Actors: Alice 
Props: N/A

Filming delay

Filming has been delayed once again due to the weather, on Monday it rained constantly therefore it wouldn’t have been a good idea to film. We have decided to film on the weekend (3^rd February), this is our last chance as our deadline is the following week.

Letter to Apple Records

This is the letter i've sent to Apple Records asking for permission to use their song:

Miss Clark
508 Fulbridge Road
Werrington
Peterborough
PE4 6SD

1^st February 2013

Apple Records
27 Ovington Square
London, SW3 1LJ
ENGLAND

To Whom this may concern,

                                                    I’m currently studying A-Levels at Ken Stimpson Community School. As part of my Media course I have to create a filming opening.

To my knowledge Apple Records owns the rights to the song Blackbird by The Beatles. If this is the case then please may I use the song as part of my opening. The film opening is for educational purposes only and will be only seen by my teacher and the examiner.

If I don’t hear from you then I assume it’s okay for me to use the song.

Yours sincerely,

 

Laura Clark

Possible filming locations

This is one of the possible filming locations, it’s a river just outside of Peakirk. This could be used as part of Alice’s journey:

We will continue to bike around this area as its quite remote therefore hardly any modern cars will drive past that will affect our sequence.

For example this is what the surrounding area looks like:

 

Source: images from Google maps

Change of schedule

We were planning on filming on Monday 21^st January but due to the snow we’ve had to delay filming for a week.

Script: Narration

The only dialogue used in our opening sequence is narration. Sky wrote a piece of narration to go alongside our opening. She used quotes, songs and books as inspiration.

We decided we wanted the narration to be continuous in the opening therefore we split the script up into sentences that could be said with pauses in-between. 

Sky:

When I think of growing older I get a strange feeling in my belly. It’s like, it’s not meant to be.

And if I never grow older, well that will be a comfort.

That’s me. You don’t know about me.

But I know me

Like a black bird carries the sky on its back, I feel like I carry the weight of the world on mine.

I have so much I wanna say but no one to hear it. I just need to there’s someone out there that listens and understands.

I often spend my time out; my family never really acknowledge me.

And if you don’t know where your heading any road will take you there.

I’ve not always been this way, so negative.

My life used to be so good and happy, but you’re not supposed to look back, you’re supposed to keep going.

I used to think it would be nice if thinks made sense for a change, but now that’s all different.

Now I have Rosie, she listens to me and I like that.

We found peace in each other, when I’m with her I’m not alone and nether is she.

And I wouldn’t go back to yesterday because I was a different person then. And life doesn’t stop for anyone.

So let me tell you a story, my name is Alice.

Storyboard

Inspiration

When I watched ‘Dark Shadows’ I thought the opening was particular good. It portray the setting of the film and the time in which it was in really well.

Firstly the date appeared:

We had decided to do this on one of our shots, but using the font Gabriola which is the same as out title's font as we thought it will portray our films time period.

Here’s the example of our date in our chosen font:

Another element of ‘Dark Shadows’ opening I really liked that portrayed the time period was the choice of song. ‘Nights in white satin’ by The Moody Blues was a well-known song in the 70’s in which ‘Dark Shadows’ is set in. We got the idea to have a Beatles song due to them being popular in the 60’s

This is the opening titles of ‘Dark Shadows’:

Ideas of film settings

For our film opening the characters of Rosie and Alice will meet at a field where they will be having a picnic. We have took inspiration from the film The Time Traveller's Wife of where they meet at a picnic spot in a field. I have attached below the image that shows this

Here’s a screenshot from the scene in the ‘Time Traveller’s Wife’:

This how we want this part of our sequence to look like.

Editing ideas

Before our film opening starts our company logo will appear, the ‘Fantasy Productions’ will come on the screen. We want the bird that sits on top of the ‘T’ in our logo to fly out of shot.The drawn bird with fly out of that screen using various editing programmes, and then it will link into the actual film opening with a bird on an aerial view flying downwards, which Alice will then be introduced as riding on her bike.

Our film title decision

As a group we have decided to name our film ‘Her name is Alice’. We chose this as the main character in our film is called ‘Alice’ therefore we thought to the call the film this would be appropriate. The title may make the viewer’s interested in finding out about 'Alice' as she must be a key character if the film includes her name.The font we have decided on is Gabriola which is what we will use for our title.

This is what our film title looks like in our chosen font:

 

Clothing

Our film features characters from two different decades (50's and 60's) therefore we have to do research into both of these era's.

Here are a few examples of the clothing we are hoping for our characters to wear.

1950's:

 

1960's:

 

The difference between the fashion between these two decades is in the 60’s the dress are straight compared the 50’s dresses that have more shape.

Change of name in our film

Our initial names for our characters in the film were Alice and Mona, we have since changed Mona as we had some disagreements within the group. We have now re-looked at names in the 1950’s which would fit in with the age of our character that died around this time. As a group we have now decided on the name Rosie to our second character, we chose this name as it can be shortened to Rose for our narration piece. Our characters names are now Alice and Rosie.

Company logo

As a group we decided we wanted our company to be simple and sleek to ensure it stayed looking professional rather than tacky. We put all had put our ideas together and this is the final design:

We have used the word “fantasy” as our company logo name as the genre of our film will be Fantasy / Thriller, therefore it links. We have used the image of a blackbird that we have drawn as our company logo image as our film will be opening with a blackbird flying. It also links with our music choice of ‘Blackbirds’ by The Beatles.