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