Alex Muir's A2 Level Media Blog!

Thursday, 24 November 2016

Location shots

Unknown 02:38:00

Last week, Robert and I went to visit two similar locations (East Hill and Harpford) where we thought they would be good places to shoot our car chase scene. These two locations are both very natural, sparsely populated and are fortified in trees. This is what we had planned in our storyboard. Harpford is a lot more difficult to access compared to East Hill as there are many trespass gates obstructing the back road , also the road is quite a narrow and hazardous which won't be good for our risk assessment. East hill is incredibly easy access which makes it easier for us to film as the long main road here is much wider and safer than Harpfords. Also the area where we plan to have the hostage scene in our film will take place at East Hill so the car chase here will link in successfully.

East Hill

Harpford Images

Monday, 21 November 2016

Filming

Day 1 | Short Film

Unknown 13:00:00

Robert and I attempted our first scene of footage on the 18th November 2016 with our main antagonist character 'Igor' played by Harry Cockayne. This scene took place on the top floor of Princesshay Car park in the city of Exeter. This filing day was va very good 'test day' which made myself and Robert experience timing errors, equipment usage and weather changes. The footage we had got was useful for myself and Robert to group together in a rough cut and present to our class audience back at school for some audience feedback.

We were very lucky when we arrived due to there being only us in the car park and no other public shoppers. SO we weren't disturbed for the first couple of hours. We scripted the day based on the actions from our story-board which was useful. Our rough storyboard included the opening sequence of Harry walking out of a lift which we attempted to film. After several attempts, it started to get busy all around the area and we soon realised that it wasn't easy for us to capture quality footage without people walking into shot. We tried many more times, but more and more shoppers were entering the car park, so we tried some other different shots of harry walking around the floor for a short amount of time, but the weather was starting to get even worse with wind and rain showers.

This short clip is one of the few decent pieces of footage that we managed to record that shows our original opening sequence idea. Robert and I quickly decided to change the idea of using the lift for our opening sequence and introduced a smooth over the shoulder pull over shot for our opening. The weather also got sunnier as the day went on, which was not what we wanted, as it doesn't represent a British gangster film with sunny weather. We wanted gritty weather with a grey sky to illustrate darkness. Our gathered footage we made from this filming day has been presented to our class for audience feedback and has given us some tips for improving and developing our short film.

Wednesday, 16 November 2016

Filming

Day 1 | Filming Preparation

Unknown 12:44:00

From looking at myself and Roberts production schedule we have made recently. We are now organising props, costumes and filming equipment for our first filming day tomorrow starring our main antagonist character 'Igor' (Harry Cockayne) in Exeter.

I firstly made sure I could pick up Harry in the morning so we could get to Exeter to film our first scene as quick as possible before the car park we intend to film in gets too busy with members of the public. Myself and Harry would meet Robert my filming partner in the Exeter car park as it is more convenient. The car I will be driving over there will also be the car we are going to use for Harry to drive in the film which is a 'Mercedes A Class' black vehicle that shows class and wealth. Robert will bring all of the camera/filming equipment with him and I have the responsibility of getting Harry, his costume and ourselves to arrive on time.

The equipment that Robert will be bringing includes:

Canon 600D DSLR
RODE NTG3 Mic
RODE Mic Boom Pole
Audio Recorder
iPhone 6s

Harry was informed by myself and Robert to wear a black suit, tie and smart shoes. This costume choice will illustrate his wealth and sophistication to his criminal character. I also agreed with Robert that I would clean the Mercedes prop car the night before so it would be clean and shiny that will show up nicely on the footage of our short film. Also, the weather was looking slightly unpredictable as it kept changing every day, with a mixture of rain showers and sunny spells. We wanted our footage to be shot on a dry day with not too much sun, so we had to see on the day if the weather was appropriate.

Monday, 14 November 2016

Costume Design

Costume Design | Igor

Unknown 07:37:00

Igor is the character name our main superior antagonist (who is played by Harry Cockayne). Igor is a superior high ranking member of Syndicate International. Igor is on the hunt for Jack Morgan (our main protagonist character) Jack possesses a Swiss vault which Igor wants in order to conqeur. A bounty hunter called 'Crimson' is hired by Igor to hunt down Jack and to bring him to a rural location isolated from everything where Igor's sidekick 'Zeb' interrogates Jack for the Swiss Vault. Just like in most action/adventure films, Igor is played as the superior, powerful villain.

The moodboard above is made by Robert and myself that illustrates what we want our character Igor to look like. We want him to look intimidating, superior and villainous. The suit he will wear is also a typical convention/stereotype of sophisticated criminals in action films such as Agent 47.

Harry Cockayne is our actor for the role of Igor as his physical appearance is perfect for the role (large and intimidating.) He also looks older than he looks (he is currently 16) even though he looks like an 18 year old at least. Harry played a great role in our AS media studies opening sequence so we wanted to use him again for an even more key character in this years A2 media short film.

Harry Cockayne is on the left on this image above.

Sunday, 13 November 2016

Audience

Audience Profile

Unknown 06:30:00

Robert and I think that it is crucial for us to identify who we want out target audience to be. This will enable us to sculpture our product more and enhance the conventions and features of our film that will please our audience.

Audience Profiles:

Primary Audience: (People which would watch out film and enjoy it.) James Reddish

Age Range: 18
Interests: Fashion-design, Vehicle industry and mixed martial arts.
Social Background: Lively, and frequent cinema visitor.

Secondary Audience: (who might watch it, but would prefer watching other film genre types.) Jack Simmons

Age Range: 18
Interests: Into varieties of film genres with a moderate use of visiting cinemas.
Social Background: Very musical, interested in Rock/electronic music.

These two types of audiences (primary/secondary) will give us an insight of what Robert and I need to do to make our short film entertaining to a broader audience range including the secondary audience.

Saturday, 12 November 2016

Planning

Production Schedule

Unknown 13:56:00

Due to the conversations made with out media Facebook group chat, Robert and I have successfully organised dates in advance for our actors to attend filming dates for our short film. We asked the actors which dates they were available and what times. They all replied and we all agreed on certain days which we all were able to attend. The image below is a screen shot of our chat using the social media website called 'Facebook'.

After we agreed on permanent dates for filming, Robert and I produced an initial production schedule of the three main scenes of our short film.

This production schedule lists each location of each shot, as well as the props, equipment and timings which will all help myself and Roberts organisational skills for a better post production.

Friday, 11 November 2016

Planning

Risk Assessment

Unknown 06:02:00

After taking into consideration where Robert and I would be filming our short film in different locations throughout, we have came up with a numerous amount of risks that could occur while the filming process takes place. These risks involve the film makers (myself and Robert) as well as the actors and the public in general. I have made a colour coded table illustrating the levels of risk these listed hazards relate to ranking from Low-Moderate-High-Extreme.