Filming ~ Day 2 & Extras | Production

Second day of shooting:

27th November 2016

This shoot day was a little bit more relaxed than the first one, as all of the shots with the actress had been completed, and there were only a few more shots that needed to be done. These shots will help make my video more of a montage, and also they will hopefully create a lot of emotion throughout the video.

• The first shot to be filmed was the door slamming to go along with the line in the poem. I wanted to have the bottom of the door in the shot, so the camera was placed on the floor and at a close up of the left hand side of the door. This shot would allow the audience to see the door actually shutting.
• Then for the outside scene, I decided to make a time-lapse type of shot. To do this I placed the camera by the window, on a tripod, and left it to film for a few minutes. To have a variety of shots, I moved the camera every few minutes to show a different perspective of the outside.

• I still needed the audio of the voicemail, so I recorded that by calling someone on my phone and having them not answer.

Extra Shots

There were a few shots that I had filmed previously before the shooting days, and I decided that these shots would work well in my video as they matched the visual idea I was looking for. 

• The raindrops on the window shot, was at first filmed for a test run of my idea, however when it came to the shoot days the weather was dry and there was no sign of rain. It made sense for me to use the test shots as the final footage as they looked really nice and they fitted in nicely with the tone of my video.
• The really blurry shot of the flame from a lit tea candle, shot at a birds eye view, was taken for a test run of the idea again. I really liked the shot so I decided to use it within my actual video, as I knew it wouldn't be on screen for too long, but also it would add to the tone of the video.
• The landscape shot that I will use for the final video is a shot that I took when I was on holiday in France. I decided this would be a good shot to use as it will show contrast between the distorted audio and the calm imagery. I will change the colour correction of the clip so the colour is less vibrant and so it matches the other images.
• My first idea for the Christmas part of the poem, was to shoot a scene of opened presents sat on a coffee table, however I didn't have the material I needed to create the shot. Instead I decided to use some footage from a previous video I had made. This shot is of the Christmas tree decorations and it's a good resemblance of the holiday period.

Filming ~ Day 1 | Production

First day of shooting:

26th November 2016

The shoot was scheduled to start at 10am, so to prepare myself I decided to rearrange the bedroom we were shooting in, to make it more suitable for my desired set design. I moved some furniture out of the way, I took a few framed pictures off the wall so they were left bare, and I made sure all of the equipment and objects that weren't needed in the shot, were behind the camera and out of sight.

Once the actress and rest of the crew arrived to the set, we started to shoot. 

• Before the shoot day, I made sure to put the different shots in order of what is being shot first. I made sure to keep the location into consideration, so the decisions I made kept the day running smoothly.
• I started with all of the scenes in the bedroom, like the covers tossing and turning, the text on the mirror, the record player and the shots of Micaiah sat on the bed with and without reading the letter. 

• The next location was the black plain background. To create this look I used a big black screen and put it up in my living room. I then placed a stool underneath the sheet laying on the floor, so the black colour would fill the screen. 
• In terms of the make-up on Micaiah, it was best if we shot the scenes where she's looking at the camera, and then shoot the similar scenes where mascara will be running down her face. At first I was only going to get the one shot of Micaiah in the middle of the screen, looking at the camera, but when shooting I decided to shoot two more shots where she was on the left side of the screen and the right side. When shooting the mascara scenes I only had Micaiah in the middle of the screen as I knew I wouldn't use those clips as often as the others.
• In between the shoot of the 'normal' face and the 'mascara' face, we made sure to get the shot of the lit candle in front of the black background. I lit the candle and blew it out once recording, and in post I will reverse that clip so it looks like the candle was un lit to begin with.
• We also shot the 'normal' skin and the 'beaten up' skin, in between the other scenes. To do this I had Micaiah standing up, and we used the camera handheld in order to distort the shots slightly. 
• The 'normal' skin shots were done, so we moved onto the 'beaten' skin. Make-up was used to create the beaten up skin effect, and bruises were created in the multiple spots of the body that we had previously shot. The same sort of shot was filmed for the 'beaten' skin so I could cut to the different shot in post. 

• Once those shots were completed  we shot the close-ups of certain words and phrases from the letter. To do this, I ripped up the previously written script and placed the different parts on my bed. For each shot I moved them around and placed the certain pieces of letter in a particular position to make it easier to see the words through the camera.
• To complete the last shot of the poem, I placed the pieces of the letter around the bed with the most important one in the middle. I then had the camera start quite close to that piece and then moved the camera upwards to create a distorted zooming out effect.
• These shots were shot in the bedroom, and the pieces of the letter were place upon the bed.

• To end the shooting day, we moved onto the bathroom. I only needed two shots for this location.
• The first shot was Micaiah looking into the mirror, and the second was her washing her hands under the tap. 
• We also then recorded the audio of Micaiah reading the poem and a few extra clips of dialogue that will be presented as the character talking to herself.

Script Feedback | Development

After handing in the first draft of my script, I received some feedback for it.

• Create a backstory for the character and present it through the visuals.
• With this point, I knew that the character should have a backstory, but I didn't really want to present it too much. This is because I wanted to create a mystery as to why the character is depressed. 
• Since the video is mainly portraying the inside emotion of someone with depression, I wanted to emphasise this through not giving away too much about the reasons why. Someone with depression wouldn't often think about why they are depressed, and this is something that I wanted to carry through within the video
• However, saying that, I am going to write the letter and make it look like its dirty and tattered to imply something about the person who sent the letter. 
• Also, in one shot, the character will have bruises on her body, which will also imply that she either self-harms herself or she has previously been abused by someone. 
• Overall, I want the audience to think about and decide for themselves why she is depressed, through the imagery I will be showing.

• How is the isolation going to be shown?
• I will be presenting this, not only through the character being sat on the bed curled up, but also through the sound design.
• I will only add the ambience sound along with the phone text message tone, and words/phrases will be heard to portray the character talking to herself. 
• By having this, the scene will feel empty and hopefully the 'talking to herself' element will show that the character is always in her own head, which will create the sense that she is isolating herself from everything and everyone around her.

• What will the landscape shot be and where will it take place?
• For this shot, I was going to show a calm area, like a lake or a peaceful bit of scenery to create a contrast from the rest of the poem. 
• I'm either going to look for a place and shoot it on one of my shoot days, or I'll find some footage that I have previously shot.

• How will the flashback memory be presented?
• This will all be presented through the colour and the look of the visual. I will colour correct the image to start off, and then I'll add a glow effect or a subtle blur so it has a different look to the other images.
• Similar to other shots, I will desaturate the colour of the image so it is consistent throughout the whole video. I may also experiment with the exposure of the clip in order to add to the dream effect.

• What will the calm imagery entail?
• The calm element of some lines in the poem will be presented through symbolism. 
• For example; the shots with the candle will represent calmness, and the audio will be quite simple for these shots so the calm symbol is clear. 

• How will the last shot be 'strong' and 'powerful'?
• This will be done through the sound design.
• The shot before will have a build up of a lot of different layered sound effects, and the next shot which is the last one, will have nothing but the dull background ambience.
• The fast impact of the previous sound will effect the audience and the silence straight after, will add to that effect and will hopefully keep the audience wanting more. 

Risk Assessment | Production Notes

Here is the risk assessment for the first day of filming:

Here is the risk assessment for the second day of filming:

Call Sheet | Production Notes

Here are the call sheets for my two filming days. Saturday is the day I will be filming with the actress, and Sunday is the day I will be filming extra shots to complete everything on my shot list.

 

Costume & Props | Development

Before filming the majority of my video, I needed to get some props together and also I needed to think about what costume I wanted my actress to wear. 

Props

Some of the shots that I want to film contain lit candles, so I will need to use a variety of candles, both tea lights and tapered candles. I will film a variety of different shots for these clips in my video, and I will experiment with the blur and the focus from changing the focus on my camera. 

There is also a shot where I am going to show the actress sat by a record player. I will make sure to not only film the wide shot of the actress and the record player, I will also shoot a few cutaway close ups of the record going around on the device so I can cut to them and make the scene cut faster.

One of the decisions I made with this poem, is portraying it in the form of a letter. Originally I didn't know whether I wanted to go along with this idea or not, but i decided that it would help relate the poem to some of the clips I am planning on filming. I wrote out the poem on several pieces of paper, trying to make my handwriting look different. Once this was done I then screwed it up and made it look dirty to resemble the letter being treated badly, either by the person reading it or the person who wrote it.

Costume

In order to create a negative tone, and also to keep the visuals looking plain and simple, I decided that the actress would wear a baggy black top/jumper, along with normal dark jeans. Then in the crying scenes she would wear a dark coloured vest, to create the sense that she is exposing herself through her emotions. I think having this as costume will help when presenting the emotion her character is feeling, and also it will create the sense that she is isolated and very reserved by not showing too much about herself.

Montage | Research

To further understand the editing technique of montages I decided to do some research, before the filming and editing stage of my project.

What is a Montage?

The definition of a montage is:

"a single pictorial composition made by juxtaposing or superimposing many pictures or designs."

• A montage is the use of opposing images being placed together to represent Juxtaposition and creatine new meanings.
• Unlike conventional continuity, it is purposefully discontinuous.
• It doesn't use the 'Classic Realism' found in most Hollywood films.
• It's often shown in a fast-paced fashion, and it compresses time and shows information in short duration of time.

Sergei Eisenstein, an early directorial, proposed this method of filmmaking and it was often used to convey political messages. 

He used 'Soviet Formalism' in his filmmaking, which focused more on groups rather than individuals in order to explore a variety of stories. 

In the construction of the narrative, it doesn't follow the laws of time or space, and it also draws heavily on icons and symbolism.

An example of the use of montage, is the shower scene from Hitchcock's 'Pyscho':

Where is a Montage used?

A montage is usually found in action, thriller and horror films, and its used for multiple different reasons:

• To create tension and conflict
• To show time passing
• To show symbolism and present a particular message of theme
• It offers new storytelling possibilities
• It challenges the audience

Montage's can be found in movies, trailers, music videos and more.

Some examples of montages found in movies are:

• Hot Fuzz
• Rocky
• The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Some examples of montages found in music videos are:

• The Prodigy - Firestarter

http://www.elementsofcinema.com/editing/montage.html

Casting & Location | Production Notes

Casting

When thinking about who I wanted to cast as the female character in my video, I wanted someone who had experience with the illness itself. This was quite tricky to do as, obviously, it's a very personal thing. However, I wanted to show the pureness of the illness and the best way to do that, I thought, was to find someone who knew what it was like and could easily portray that.

The actress I have chosen is one of my close friends, Micaiah. 

I knew she would be good in this role as she has a lot of knowledge on the mental illness, and due to the fact she knows a lot about it, she has the ability to portray that feeling through the visuals and also the audio.

Micaiah is a student, but I wanted someone of that age, not for practicality, but because I wanted to show that anyone of any age can suffer from it. Within the poem Anaxagorou says 'your friends don't answer the phone and your mum's left you in tears again'. This line spoke 'young adult' to me, as she goes through a lot of emotions and it's almost like she relies on her friends and parents for help and love along the way.

Also, after doing research, students or young adults are more likely to go through depression or any other mental illness due to the stress of that time in their lives, or if they had a troubled childhood.

Location

To create a personal and intimate feeling, while also showing isolation, I've decided to shoot most of the footage with my character in a bedroom.

The room will be quite small, so it feels enclosed, but also not a lot of the room will be shot to create the feeling of claustrophobia. 

While also shooting in a small bedroom, I will be shooting outside for the sky scenery in an area that has trees and other features like that in order to create a good sense of depth of field. 

Due to my video being more of a montage, the locations I use will be quite varied, and due to having lots of close-ups of the actress and having shots in the dark, the locations may not be very clear and noticeable. 

This will keep to the depression theme in the video, as when you are suffering with this illness, you don't take any notice of the location you're in, as your brain is foggy and packed with horrible thoughts. 

Shot List | Production Notes

Here is the shot list for my shooting day.
I've split the shots into several different sections so the day is organised. These are separated into locations, so I can get all the shots done for one location and then move to the next location and do the same process.

First Draft Script | Development

Here is the first draft of my script for the adaptation video.

Due to it not having much of a narrative, I decided to layout the script through this table instead of final draft. I think doing this has helped me see the poem visually, which I found quite hard to do at the beginning.

Testing Ideas | Development

To bring some of my ideas to life, and also to give me a little bit of an idea as to what some of my shots may look like in terms of composition and colour, I decided to test some of the shots.

I adjusted the colours, as this is something I want to do to the final footage, and also I experimented with the pace of the cuts, as I may decide to have the video at a fast pace.

Doing this test will help me when it comes to editing, as I can look back and see what effects I used to create a certain look.

Montage Practise | Workshop

After the workshop with Mike Rymer, we had a further workshop to give us practise on creating a montage. We were to work in a group, create a 3-5 minute montage, the theme of the video could either be despair, hope, joy or fear, and we had to edit the footage individually to create 4 different outcomes.

Planning

When getting into groups, we decided to get into our groups from before so myself, Nisserin, Ida and Josh worked together. We decided to pick the theme hope for our video, and came up with the idea that Josh was going to run for president so the video would contain him getting ready to do his campaign speech. We created a shot list and a short script for the speech.
 However, when it came to the filming day, we were told that the montage shouldn't have a narrative which meant that we had to adjust our original idea. We talked as a group and decided to stick to the original shot list and got rid of some of the shots that we didn't think were needed. We would then edit the footage in a way that doesn't show a narrative, but instead shows a montage.

Filming

When filming the shots, we used the jib for the last shot as a type of 'hero' shot. We also then used a mixture of close-ups and mid-shots within our camera work, while filming both inside and outside to create a variation of locations. To create a quick pace we used a mixture of quick pans which were then cut quickly within the editing.

Editing

We had filmed a shot where Josh makes a tick list and ticks all of things off the list, this shot was what I wanted to structure my video with so I made sure to interpret that throughout the whole video. I also wanted to make it quick paced, so I made sure to make the cuts quick and make sure the sound design created an impact. Then to create the symbol of hope, I decided to add an image of a dove and make it move so it lands on Josh's shoulder at the end. I did this to emphasise the hope theme as I felt it wasn't quite clear within my video, although the music chose does help.

My feedback was positive, although I was told that the theme of hope wasn't quite there but the montage aspect of the video was well presented. 

Depression | Research

Before filming my video, and going any further with the planning, I decided to do some research on the topic of depression as that theme will run throughout my whole video.

I already have a fair amount of knowledge on depression, but to further expand my knowledge I did some research into it. When seeing someone that has depression, from the outside, it can seem like that person is just sad and they can be very misunderstood. From the inside, it's a very dark illness that can change your life emotionally, physically and especially mentally.

Depression is a low mood that lasts for a long time, but in its mildest form, it can mean just being in low spirits. It won't always stop you from living a normal life and doing normal everyday things, but it makes things harder and makes you feel worthless and unneeded.
However, depression can be life-threatening as it can make someone feel suicidal and feel like giving up with living.

For someone that has experienced something similar to depression, I know that it can affect quite a lot in your life, but there isn't just one form of depression. The different types of depression are:

• Seasonal affective disorder (SAD)
• depression that usually occurs in winter.
• Dysthymia
• continuous mild depression that can last for a year or two, or maybe even longer.
• Prenatal depression
• this occurs during pregnancy.
• Postnatal depression
• This occurs after becoming a parent.

Many people that have depression can also have anxiety as well, and the feelings that surround a depressed on a usually daily basis is unhappiness and hopelessness. Depressed people tend to lose interest in things they enjoy doing and feel very tearful a lot of the time. 

Depression can be triggered from a variety of different things. It can either be a history thing were some others in the family have suffered from depression, or it can be from traumatic experiences or life changing events. 

With this knowledge, I can make sure I portray depression in a way that will show what it's like from the inside rather than the out. Also it will help me when creating the visuals and talking to the actress about her character.

http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/depression/Pages/Introduction.aspx

http://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/types-of-mental-health-problems/depression/#.WEmq3HecbUo

Adaptation | Research

This unit is all about adapting someone else's work, and putting our interpretation on it through video. I decided to do some research on adaptation's to help me understand a little bit more about them, and to help me throughout this project.

The definition of adaptation is

1. "the act of adapting."

 2. "the state of being adapted; adjustment."

 3. "something produced by adapting: an adaptation of a play for television."

Literary theorist Linda Hutcheon describes adapting as

"the desire to transfer a story from one medium or one genre to another" (Hutcheon, 2006:39)

A film adaptation is the transformation of turning written work into a film a TV series, usually shown in different parts. The director is usually the one who influences the adaption as they interpret the story in their own style.
Sergei Eisenstein, a Russian filmmaker and theorist, has suggested that novels actually contain written notes of visual filmmaking techniques like fades and other transitions and editing techniques. It has also been argued that there are many similarities in the storytelling method of both a film and a book.

However, there are differences between a film adaptation and the original text. The film will inevitably be shorter and may not contain every detail and scene that is written in the book. This is due to the length of the novel, and the fact that the audience won't want to watch a film that is longer than roughy 2 hours. A TV series adaptation will be closer to the story, as it will be split up into different parts meaning the whole story can be shown and told if the director wants it to be.

There have been a range of different reactions and opinions of certain adaptations from novel to screen, some being praised and others not. However, this reaction will be done to the type of audience the book and possibly the cast and crew have. The 'loyal' fans of the book may find the screen version not to their liking due to their loyalty to the original novel. However, fans of the director and or the cast may prefer the film due to their liking of the people on screen or the person who adapted it.

When relating this research to my poem, I need to make sure that I interpret the poem to my liking, but also take into consideration what the real meaning and story behind the poem is.

www.dictionary.com/browse/adaptation.com
Hutcheon, L. (2006) Hutcheon page stage. [online] At: http://www.canadianshakespeares.ca/essays/hutcheon_page_stage.pdf (Accessed on 28 November 2016)
(Hutcheon, 2006)

Idea Feedback | Development

As a class, we all sat together and talked about our ideas in order to get some feedback and possibly some helpful suggestions on how to make it better. 

When talking about my montage idea, the feedback was positive and people seemed to like my visual and sound design ideas. They also liked the fact that I want to portray depression as how it is for the depressed person, rather than how people from the outside see it. 

Some suggestions that were made was having a shot of the character with two different types of faces, to show the difference between how the person feels on the inside to how they look on the inside.

Overall, the feedback was positive and I'm really happy with the suggestions that were made, and I will definitely try and use them within my ideas.

DSLR Practise | Workshop

To prepare us for the filming of our fiction adaptation, we had a camera workshop to gives us more practise with the DSLR Cameras and to experiment with pieces of equipment we have access too. This workshop was run by Mike Rymer: a filmmaker who's worked in TV and film and has released his debut short film "SICK" that has broken the silence on mental health.

http://mikerymer.info/biog/

Within the workshop, Mike talked about the different type of camera movements and how important they are in telling a story. The camera movements that were mentioned were:

• Tracking
• Panning
• Crab: camera moves from left to right
• Jib: camera moves up and down
• Track/Dolly: camera moved backwards and forwards
• ContraZoom: camera tracks in and zooms out at the same time

We were shown many different examples of these camera movements and as a class we experimented with trailing out these different movements. This showed us that something like the ContraZoom is actually quite difficult to perfect, but with practise it's quite doable.

After the presentation, we split up into groups of 4 and began to experiment with the pieces of equipment that we have access too, like the jib, the camera track and the fig rig.

My group started with the camera track and tried to recreate some of the Wes Anderson tracking shots. These were fun to do, and although the outcome wasn't the best, we were able to trial this movement out and experiment with different ways to make it work.

We then moved onto the jib and created a revealing shot. We had two people sitting down in front of the camera, and another person stood on the other side of the room. The jib comes up and reveals the person on the other side of the room, while the two people spot her and run towards her. This shot worked really well, and we all thought the jib made the shot look effective.

Overall, this workshop was really useful to have and has helped me feel confident enough to use these pieces of equipment within my own work. 

Inspiration | Research

When coming up with visual ideas for some of the lines in the poem, there were a few pictures I had previously seen, and scenes in TV series that I had watched, that gave me some inspiration.

"Fighting the darkness for a moment of peace"

For this line in the poem, I had an image of a candle either being lit or already lit against a black background. To help me bring this image to life I researched that type of composition online and found a picture that replicated my idea.

The lit candle will portray the symbol of hope, while the darkness of the background will follow the line of the poem. To create this scene I will light a candle and set it in front of a black background. To present the difference between darkness and peace, I will shoot the candle being blown out, and in the editing process I will experiment with the reverse effect, so the candle being blown out will be shown in reverse order.

"To see the flames within your own"

For this line in the poem, I have a few different ideas depending on which one works the best. My first idea was a distorted flame from either a candle or a fire pit, and my second idea was the characters face blending with flames. When researching similar images to this idea I found a photo that gave me another idea that I might like to try.

This is a double exposure effect that makes the flames fit inside the outline of the model. I really liked this effect and thought it would be a nice effect to try out, however if it doesn't fit in with the rest of my imagery, which will be quite simple, then I will have to decide whether to go with my first idea or stick with this one.

"And we put on a song to dance to"

For this line in the poem, I wanted to show music playing but instead of using an actual instrument I wanted to add an vintage type of effect with a record player. When researching into record player photography, in order to make the visual effect, I found an image that helped me.

Although the colour won't be the same, the image will be slightly similar. The character will be in my visual, so I will start off with this composition of the record player playing the music, then there will be a focus pull from the player to the character.
I find this line quite emotional and almost makes me think of a memory being thought about, so I want to make this shot impactful and quite emotional for the viewer, and I think this visual will create this.

"To be Black, to be a woman,"

"To be poor and told your whole life" 

 "Things that make you compose a list"

"Of a million ways to kill yourself"

For these four lines in the poem, I wanted to replicate a scene from the TV series 'One Tree Hill'. In Season 6 one of the main characters gets attacked while closing her store, and there is a scene a few episodes afterwards, where she looks in the mirror and words are surrounding her on the mirror.

The image I thought about was very similar to this, however on the mirror, the shapes circling areas of her face and body won't be replicated. Although, similar to this, I will have words on the mirror in red lipstick.

The words that will be on the mirror for my visual are 'black', 'woman', 'poor' and 'kill yourself'.
There is another scene in 'One Tree Hill' that is very similar to this one, but instead of lipstick on the mirror, it's a projection of a piece of paper.

This scene is from Season 4, episode 13, and the words covering the actress are insults to herself, which is similar to my idea.




Then when thinking about the colour of the visuals for my video, I wanted a very de-saturated look, similar to these images.

The reasoning for the decision of de-saturated images, is due to the tone I want to create. The poem is about depression, and I have used that as my main theme for the video. I feel like having the colour de-saturated would create a depressing tone and will help towards showing the characters emotions.