Finished Shooting

We have finally finished the shooting for our film. I shot plenty of behind the scenes shots too. :) 

I also took some stills for the poster too. I made the safety audit which was detailed and made account of many possibilities including the wet weather and puddles. Uneven ground and potentially dangerous props (glass bottles) were taken into consideration. One glass bottle was accidentally smashed so I stopped all work until the shards were removed from the environment and it was safe for us and others enjoying the common ground premises.

Broken glass: a subtle danger. 

And so we edit... (again)

Coping With Absence

Very recently one of our groups members made an unplanned holiday trip for three days. The remaining member and myself had to make do with what we could do. We did what we could well and we are progressing well with our ideas and blogs. The third member is now back and has caught up with us.

Props and costumes

We are going to need several props for our film, these are going to include a football (this will be very easy to obtain as many of the male actors will have at least one we could use), many empty beer cans/bottles to use to represent a drunken teen scene. We want our actors to wear casual clothing so they can move easily and comfortably, also it would be more authentic if they were to wear the clothes that they would normally wear.

Media Update No 3

We have just finished the scene with Ben receiving a letter saying he has an S.T.D. I filmed behind the scenes and got an insight from several interesting angles.

Production Company

We need a production company for our soap. We had several options to choose from, these included BBC3, Channel4 and E4. All of which make good quality programs including teen soap operas. We decided to opt for E4 owing to their expertise with teen soap operas, including the famous Skins and Inbetweeners.

The Location

Although we already have decided where the film is to be shot I have forgot to post it on here. It is a place called Boys Village in the vale of Glamorgan, it was a miners holiday hotel for the workers of Ocean Colliery and the later nationalised N.C.B. here are some photographs of the place, it is rather spooky in the dark and has plenty of atmosphere- perfect!

Media Update No 2

Great news from our group we have officially started filming our trailer, we have started with the bed with Zak and Paige (based on Freddie/Tony and Effy) I have also got some screenshots to post as mentioned in the video update.

Storyboards

We have been planning our storyboards for a considerable time and we have been drawing them out. I have filmed some of the planning to demonstrate the process. I do help out though for the sake of this video I didn't while filming them.
In the first video is an explanation of what I have done and the other video is a clip of actual storyboard planning.

Technical Issue

All I need to do now with regards to putting the film footage up is transfer it from the memory card in the camera to the blog. However the Macs do not like the idea of directly importing the footage directly so I have decided to use Imovie09 to attempt to get it to work. If this does not work then I shall have to do this at home with my own file editing software which I acquired specifically for editing high definition files. However the stills will load correctly. So there is hope as I used AVS Video Editor 6.1 to work with the offending file type.

Linking to exam works

For the exam based aspect of this course we are studying collective identity and social realism on television and film. Our chosen topic is the Welsh so for that we are linking into this aspect by looking into a new reality Tv program called The Valleys which is essentially a Welsh version of Geordie Shore and The Only Way is Essex. However The Valleys is very derogative of the Welsh though some of its scenes are filmed well.

The Valleys Logo

The Valleys poster

Filmed Auditions

The above film is footage of some of our auditions that we held in order to decide who we wanted to act in our trailer, it starts off initially with an overview of what we are doing. Below is a list of all people involved (not all auditions included in video)

Documentarians
Stevie Anthony
Hannah Parker     (All Documentarians featured in footage above)
Stephen Pearce


Girls:
Zoe Smith
Lauren Barber
Megan Mctravers
Nia Jones
Eve Thomas
Sophie Bees
Paige Rees
Hannah Parker

Boys:
Jevan Cannon
Zak Rossaye
Brandon Frowen
Ben Hunter
Karl Deacy
Aaron Tuck

Ideas and Storylines

Our principle idea that we are going to work with for our teen soap is a party of teenagers where they get drunk and wander around the site doing things in a montage of shots of specific characters doing things to suggest story lines that would feature in the soap.

We decided to go for 3 main ideas for central storylines in our soap, we wanted to go for storylines that were good but weren't so overly used that they are regarded as cliches. (e.g. teenage pregnancy)
we came up with....

on a different character from various real soaps and series, or by taking an element of a character that we like and applying it to one of our ow characters. We are basing Paige on the character Effy from E4's Skins, she is



This is Zak who shall be playing one of the gay characters

• A love triangle (admittedly a common story in soaps but we made ours involve homosexuality so that it would be different to all the others that like to feature it.) The idea we have is to have 2 men who are openly gay and proud, these both go a party but the next morning 1 wakes up with a girl in bed with him which is inevitably going to cause ructions. We will be having our actors Zak, Brandon and Paige to star in our trailer, we are basing each charactera troubled character in the series who is idolised and has some effective and hitting story lines. We shall be basing Zak on two different characters both from Skins. The character of Tony from series one, he is the  'ring leader' of his group of friends he is cool but has an subtle darker side that we can see bubbling. We shall also base him on Freddie from series two of Skins, again he is a cool character but is a very likeable character.

This is Freddie, one of the inspirations for Zak

Effy from Skins

This is Tony he is the other inspirational character for Zak

Karl, this is who shall play our drug dealer character 

• A drug dealer (played by Karl) (seen before but not often) we have decided Karl is the 'leader' of his group of friends and is the leader/head of the party, we have decided to take inspiration and traits of his character are derived from the character Chris from series 1 and 2 of Skins, he is what slang users would refer to as a 'druggie' (drug user/ dealer) yet we decided that he should actually be a very nice person despite his disposition towards dangerous and illegal substances. His attitude for life that he often tells the other characters in Skins is 'F*** It'. We are also basing Karl on Alo from series 5 and 6 of Skins. He is the generic loud and funny type however like the rest of the characters has underlying problems that will evidently arise in the soap. He brings the light humour to the dark soap we are aiming to create. We want to give Karl some one liners to shout in the trailer as we think this will fit well with the trailer and his character. One direct line that we will use that Alo says is "we are the children of the revolution'' we think this will link with our theme of our soap.

Chris from Skins- characteristics directly applied to Karl 

Alo- Another inspiration for our drug dealing Karl

• An Aids/HIV transmission between 2 characters (not a common story, so unique yet also has the potential to be a powerful storyline if it was done correctly.) We are having our character played by Ben, after having 'relations' with Hannah  (our other character) we are going to have Ben receiving a phone call, the only thing the audience hear is "the results were positive" and then we see Ben leaving to find Hannah to 'break the news.'  This creates and enigma code which shall interest the audience.

Music For film

For our trailer we need music that is copyright free, this only gives us a few basic and rather bland options of what type of music we can use, however Stevie asked a band called Kids in Glass Houses on Twitter if we could use a song or 2 for our project, they very kindly agreed and here is the proof. It as a screenshot of Stevie's tweet to Andrew Shay, the bassist for Kids in Glass Houses. Below is one of the songs we can now use.

Trailer analysis and idea sourcing

Trailer Analysis

The 1st trailer I am going to analyse is for the BBC school soap Waterloo Road.

I decided to analyse this trailer as it is a teen drama like our production will be, also we wanted to portray teenagers using the group the stereotypes as delinquents though we also wanted to portray some as more socially acceptable individuals. We did not like the idea of gangs however so we intend to portray the delinquency through another form, in our case like the trailers for Channel 4/E4's teen soap Skins  where teenagers always appear to be having wild parties and  constantly appear reckless (at least in the trailers) we decided to base our trailer using the drunken party idea from Skins (though not copied as that's plagiarism.) 

The trailer begins with quite fast paced modern music, with a classroom scene of 2 teachers discussing a gang problem, there are then 2 (one is a medium close up, group shot to establish who they are and make them appear closer, therefore scarier)  shots of the school yard with a small group of 4 boys wearing balaclavas and hoodies, this is a typical convention of stereotypical teenage chavs (hooligans) there is then a "two shot" of an older man in the same kind of dress, intimidating a teacher on the yard and a fast, shot cut of a staffordshire bull terrier dog (another convention of chavs, as all chavs are depicted with owning this type of dog as as status symbol) there is the digetic noise of the dog barking, there is then a short montage of gang culture style shots (fist bumping) then a low angle shot of a teacher in a school conference, the low angle shot suggests he is in a position of power and is maybe a hero in the storyline, there is then a brief shot of  the school pupils marching down a corridor with their mouths gagged which shows they have been taken hostage by the gang, then there is a close up of a male school pupil with a presumed Muslim (head scarves and unrevealing clothing suggest this) female in the background, not all of his face is shown, suggesting that he is a somewhat shifty individual, thought the fact that he says "Its not over this" referring to the fight to save the school from chavs signals that he is a good character (enigma code?)

Shot List

Our group has decided on the basic shot list for the soap trailer, this list is basic but it is only the initial draft and will be updated and refined when required.

1. Crabbing shot of Zak and Paige (in bed, must see photo of Zak and
Brandon) phone ringing, lots of missed calls from Brandon. Zak closes
eyes - fade to party.

This is the type of shot we desire to recreate in our own project. 

2. Establishing shot, of keep out sign camera follows someone running
to party - pool with people - Karl at the top of the pool 'We are the
children of the revolution'

Children of the Revolution Scene

3. Low angle shot - general party

4. Pan - general party




5. High angle shot - Brandon and Zak - close up establish relationship




6. General party scene




7. General party scene (climbing out of pool.)




8. Running to church - lead by Karl.




9. Cut to inside church - (drugs in a separate room)




10. Ben walks off with Hannah.




11. New scene in bed, Ben wakes up, phone call 'it's positive' he says
'f***' he hangs up - he closes his eyes.




12. Hannah and Ben alone, 'suggestive intimacy' closes eyes.




13. Ben in room, phones Hannah -goes to voicemail.




14. Slo-mo of Karl and drugs.




15. Our "Effy" character Paige at the window, smoking. Zak leaves room
looking distressed.




16. Kiss.




17. Brandon texts Zak.




19. Hannah smokes pipe.




20. Paige walks towards Zak




21. Title.

New Role

For the soap I have been given the role of behind the scenes documentarian. My additional role is to film behind the scenes of our soap to show how we are researching, planning and shooting our film from another angle to show an insight into how such projects are actually created to add additional interest and perspective.
I will be going along to film sites and filming the film being filmed as well as the actors being briefed and research into existing programs being carried out.

New Sony Handycam which we now use for the main project
for a test I filmed the auditions with it.

I have initially started this role and have already filmed behind the scenes footage of the auditions and will very shortly be documenting script planning, storyboard development and location shots.

New Tripod for our project

Trailers: Codes, Conventions and Useful Miscellany

BBC trailer for teen drama "Waterloo Road"

A trailer is a short piece of footage that is used to advertise a film or television series, the timing of a trailer is crucial, if it is shown too early then the audience will forget about it and then forget about watching the program too. If it is shown too late then it will not be able to attract a big enough audience. The majority of trailers for television series tend to be shown about a month prior to the release of the program they are advertising, they are then shown regularly from then on until the program is released. For those wishing to see trailers they are commonly found on television and on the internet. Film trailers can also be found in cinemas.

Official trailer for 'Skins' on YouTube,
 it is appropriate as we are doing a teenager themed Soap.
We particularly like the blurred effect of the shot to show a drunken party.

     A trailer is not actually a mini-film piece but indeed a genre in its own right and like all genres, trailers have their own typical codes and conventions.

Trailer for an existing Teen soap "Hollyoaks"

     Some of these codes and conventions are.,- attention grabbing, (require 100% of audience attention to attract audience) they create mood and a atmosphere.) trailers are fast moving and have a fast pace, (they require it as they are only 2 minutes long or more often even shorter still so they have to convey a general idea of the storyline and interest an audience in a short time.) Sound is particularly important in trailers, especially the music as if the music is good then it will engage the audience, if the music is not appropriate then it will be likely to disengage the audience and put them off watching the program. Some trailers have voice overs as well, the above principle is the same if the voice is good then the audience will be interested, if not they won't be.

TimePlan

	Completion Date	Date Achieved
Research and Analysis
Teaser Trailer	September 26th
Listings Magazine Front Cover	November 1st
Poster	November 1st
Planning
Teaser Trailer	October 1st
Listings Magazine Front Cover	November 7th
Poster	November 7th
Construction
Teaser Trailer	October 30th
Listings Magazine Front Cover	November 30th
Poster	November 30th
Evaluation
Teaser Trailer	March 28th
Listings Magazine Front Cover	March 28th
Poster	March 28th

 This plan is workable and is liable to change due to factors such as weather, school closure, equipment failures and possible issues with location. (All Dates 2012)