Production Journal - DepicT

September 30th 2014 - Shot List & Storyboard

Today, we made some significant progress in developing what each shot of our 90 second film will look like, starting with the development of a basic shot list. It has a total of 16 shots to nearly fill the 90 second maximum. We worked hard to imagine what these shots will look like, in order to ensure it was tense and dramatic to begin with. We also thought about the lighting - which is essential for the dark setting - and various sound effects we will be needing.

We also started our storyboard today, each having a go at drawing a rough guideline of the shots to assist with the filming progress. Although none of us are particularly amazing artists we have drawn up several images for the beginning of the film that portray the tense and dark atmosphere.

Additionally we made some decisions for the credits to the film, taking some inspiration from 2011 DepicT entry 'Candy Crime'. Working on the comedy aspect of the film's ending, as the cookie is eaten unseen by the camera, each person's name who was involved will be revealed on a piece of paper on the floor.

October 1st 2014 - Location Scouting & Storyboard

There was still lots to do on our storyboard after the previous day's lesson so, after seeing a demonstration of a Location Planning sheet, we left one member of our group to continue drawing whilst myself and one other headed out to a location room within college which we thought would be a good idea for filming. We spent some time working out the camera and lighting arrangements in the room, but found that we will need to blackout the door in order to film some shots.

October 2nd 2014 - Location Recce Sheet, Talent Agreement Forms & More Storyboard

With one member of our group absent we began work on the writing needed on the storyboard, and adding some basic shading to the storyboard images to demonstrate our chosen uses of lighting and shadows. Additionally we completed the Talent Release Form for our main character, and printed a minor release form for our other character to get signed by a parent/guardian. After scouting the location yesterday, we were also able to complete the location recce form. Lots of progress!

October 3rd 2014 - Props, Budgeting & Production Schedule

We spent a fair bit of today's lessons working out when our location will be available and not being used as a set by other groups in the class. This additionally involved working out when Reuben can join us from his own group in order to film the ending to our short. The result of these negotiations was a completed production schedule; perhaps one of the most important bits of paperwork required for preparing for the shoot.

Whilst I was getting along with the above, Daniel typed up a props list and worked out the budgeting for buying the required items. He even went down to Morrison's in order to find the prices of cookies and milk! He was also able to begin re-typing the shot list which has since become confusing with several changes to it made throughout the storyboard process.

October 6th 2014 - Finishing the Paperwork

In today's lessons we were able to complete all the required paperwork for the pre-production assignment task. For me this included the final edits to the storyboard, as well as the completion of our new shot list. Meanwhile, Ehren typed up a risk assessment for the shoot to ensure we know what to do in the event of any accidents. Daniel and I went along to W16 again and took a few pictures to go with our Recce sheet. Finally, we typed up a contact sheet with all of our contact numbers and email addresses to complete all the paperwork!

October 8th 2014 - Taking Pictures & Uploading

After completing the paperwork on Monday, today's task was to take pictures of all the written documents and convert typed documents to PDFs in order to upload them to the blog. We set up a small production line for taking the pictures, with Ehren using the camera whilst Dan and I got the paperwork out and then filed it back away, in order to get it done quicker! After completing this we used scribd to convert the pictures and PDFs to an embed format in order to add it to our blogs.

October 13th 2014 - Production Preparation

Unfortunately, due to extreme weather conditions, we were unable to stick to our production schedule today. The torrential rain meant other groups were unable to film outside and so decided to use today's first lesson to film in W16, our main location. This was partly also due to Ehren's absence in the first block. Because of this, we created a new production schedule which can also be found above in the paperwork. Negotiations previously with other groups meant we could not film on Wednesday or Thursday either so instead we will have to conclude our filming on Friday morning. After we had done this, we continued preparing for production in case we did not always have Ehren around to be our cameraman. This included Ellie teaching Dan and I how to use a Digital SLR Camera.

The second lesson today, we were able to get into W16, along with Ehren, so began setting up the lighting as was previously planned for earlier in the day.

October 14th 2014 - Start of Production

Today we finally began filming in our location W16. Within the first block we were able to complete most of the required shots with Dan thanks to the set of everything the day before. This meant progress was decent today, as well as with Reuben in the second hour of filming. Sadly we were not able to complete all of these required shots but we will try and pick them up on Friday as there is not much else to do then. We did however prioritise the shots that specifically required certain props (i.e. the milk) and cast members (i.e. Reuben).

Note (Friday): At the end of the double block we tasked Ehren with uploading the footage to a Mac ready for editing next week, although this unfortunately did not happen. This meant not all the footage was on the Mac come Friday 17th due to his multiple absences later in the week.

October 15th 2014 - Absent

Although I was absent yesterday, Ehren and Dan made progress in finding soundtracks for the film and reading the Premier Pro guide to be ready for editing, due to W16 still being unavailable.

October 16th 2014 - Pickup Shots

Although we were not scheduled to be filming today, we spotted an opportunity in the last 30 minutes of today's lesson to get in W16 and catch up with some missed shots from Tuesday. They were shots 2, 10 and 12 also (see shot list) which means we are slightly ahead of our production schedule going into Friday.

October 17th 2014 - Filming Conclusion

The first lesson today allowed us to conclude the filming in accordance with our production schedule. Again with Ehren's absence we could not upload any of the footage from his SD Card, and so filmed on my SD Card, and spent the remaining lesson importing and reviewing this available footage.

October 20th 2014 - Starting the Editing

After completing all production last week, it was time to start post-production. After getting some footage onto the Mac in the last lesson on Friday, we were finally able to get the remaining footage from Ehren. Ehren and I sat looking through all the other footage and moving the files we wanted to use into a relevant folder for use in Premier Pro. In the second lesson I then spent the time putting all of our footage onto a timeline in order and cutting it up to the appropriate lengths.

The result of today's lessons is a complete timeline of all our shots, which was actually much shorter than we had predicted it to be. This was due to either some shots not having enough usable footage because of unforeseen focus or lighting changes, and getting rid of 2 shots entirely due to a major continuity area with the glass of milk.

October 21st - Nothing to do!

Both Ehren and Dan were absent today, leaving me with nothing to do! Ehren had agreed to adjust the lighting effects of the footage because he has experience with Photoshop, whilst Dan had spent last lesson finding audio which had not been copied over to the Mac yet. After some attempts to adjust the lighting myself, it was apparent I needed Ehren's assistance and approval to continue working on the project.

October 23rd - Producing the Final Edit

At last, we were today able to complete the first and final cut of the short, lasting a total of just 62 seconds! Today mainly consisted of adding on the sound effects and music appropriately which we admittedly did have some trouble with. All three of us were finally together to review this version of the edit and concluded we were happy with it. It has not yet been rendered to be uploaded to YouTube although it should hopefully be done for us over the half term holiday.