Final Video

Individual Blog - Jamila (:

Our film opening sequence will be filmed over a course of two lessons then edited in one. Our plan is to film the first page of our storyboard in the first lesson then the second page of the storyboard in the second lesson. Hopefully this will give us enough time to get enough footage and also get a good amount of shots so that in the editing process we can pick and choose which footage will look best in our film.
Graeme is the main character 1, acting as a student who gets hurt on his ride home from college and ends up with a magical book in his bag from a witch/mystery person. Charlotte is the person who is playing the character 2 witch/mystery person. Tom and I will probably doing the majority of the filming as neither of us are acting in the actual film, and then the whole group will help with the editing in the lesson. We decided that Graeme did not really need to bring in a specific costume, as he was playing a student who wears normal everyday clothes anyway, so our idea was to have him wearing casual clothes such as jeans and a hoodie. Charlotte however needed a certain costume, and as she was a mysterious/witchy character, so she needed a long black hooded cloak which would cover her up completely. Tom was responsible for bring this costume in, as he owned it. We are using many props in order to make our film opening sequence more realistic. For example Graeme (character 1) needs a bike so he is going to bring that in to use, and also he is using his school bag. Another prop is a magical book, which we are going to simply use a standard notepad and decorate it to look more 'magical'.
We will be filming mainly in the forest area of the Long Road campus, and if we ask permission from the college to film, hopefully there will be no problems with shooting our footage there. Also we are filming a small part in a classroom, so if we ask permission on the day to shoot in the room for a few minutes that should be fine.

Individual Post :Thomas Brewer

We begin filming our children's film opening sequence on Tuesdays lesson and will likely carry over onto Wednesdays lesson as well, we are aiming for around two minutes of footage and I believe that we should easily manage this within our time frame. All pre filming work has been completed and I believe that, we are well prepared and know what we are doing the only problem at present is deciding who will act which part, this will likely be decided on Tuesday with myself or Graeme playing the role of the school boy and Charlotte or Jamila as the witch. Who ever is not decided upon to act will film the clips and help direct the actors in what ways to carry out their scenes. The location we have settled on is the small wooded area at the edge of the college grounds and our classroom these should both hopefully be available to us with out any problems. As our film is a fantasy adventure mix we will be using props to help convey this, I will be brining in a cloak for the witch to wear, Graeme will be bringing in a bike for use in the opening scene and any one who can bring in a old/magical looking book we will use that as a prop as well. If all goes well then our opening scene should turn out quite well and we will finish up with good quality footage this will allow us to edit it easily and create a good standard opening scene.

Charlotte- Individual Blog :D

For our children’s film project we are going to be doing a fantasy/adventure hybrid. There are two main characters within our opening sequence; Character 1, a school boy and Character 2, a witch. We haven’t quite decided who will be acting but we know that Character 1 will be played by either Graeme or Tom and either Jamila or I will play the witch. We decided to have a witch as one of the main characters to help our genre of fantasy to come across as obviously witches aren’t real! We also decided to have a school boy as the other main character because we thought that school children watching our film could relate to him.

As for costumes we have decided that the school boy will just be wearing ordinary clothes and therefore we will not need to have any additional costume. For the witch’s costume, I am going to bring in a black witch’s wig and a witch’s hat. A cloak will be provided by someone else (not sure who yet!). The props that we will be using include a bike, which Graeme is bringing in so that we can use it to film. Also we will need a school bag which we all have anyway so we have the choice of any of our bags! We also need a “magical” book which we haven’t quite sorted out yet, however the book only comes in at the end so we have next lesson to decide what to do so we will have it for filming the following lesson.

 The setting of our film is based in a wooded area and therefore we will be filming in the wooded area on the college site. Also for the last few shots for our opening sequence we will be filming in and around the classrooms.  We shouldn’t need permission for either of these as they are both on the college site however we will double check and make sure we are okay to be filming there.

Once we’ve decided who is acting the other 2 people in our group will be in charge or filming and directing. We are all happy to be involved in any of the roles and therefore when we decide who’s doing what, hopefully everyone will get on well with their role in order for our task to be successful! J

By Charlotte (: 

Graeme - Individual Blog

Filming Plan

We are going to film the opening sequence of our childrens film on Tuesday and Wednesday's lessons. This gives us around 2 hours to film everything we need for our production. I think we should easily be able to get all our footage within the time given, we should also hopefully have time to review some of the footage and add some extra shots. I think we have planned the filming well and we mostly know what we are going to be doing on Tuesday and Wednesday.

As we wrote the story board we discussed ideas and concepts, who was acting what and what props we needed etc. At present we have a good idea of who is acting, the locations and props that we need. We have already discussed the location, (keeping in mind we are not allowed off the college site) we are going to film the first sequence in the small wooded area around the side of the college and film inside shots in and around our classroom. This way we know we have permission to film on site and therefore shouldnt cause any issues. However we should check whether it is okay to go and film in the wooded area with the bike. We havent made a final decision about who will be acting in the film, but we know that either myself or Tom will be one on the bike or character 1, and either Charlotte or Jamila will be the witch/ mystry character or character 2. We have left the chacacters quite undetailed so we could try different shots with different actors and see what works best with who, hopefully we can come to a decision quickly on Tuesday and get on with the filming. . Who ever is not acting in the shots will help to film it, compose the shots and direct the filming. Overall i am very happy with the way things have gone so far hopefully our final film will turn out really well.     

By Graeme :)

Soundtrack Planning

As already discussed our chosen genre is a fantasy/ adventure hybrid therefore our soundtrack must reflect this genre. The sound track is a very important part of any film and must be created or chosen with the genre or theme in mind. No only must the sound track match the genre it must also go with the on screen sequences. By looking at other films with a fantasy or adventure genre we can research music and see what may fit within our theme.

Harry Potter

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xjGZrZ2OcE

Mise-En-Scene Research

Our children's film opening sequence genre is fantasy, and by researching the different areas of Mise-en-scene in other children's films such as costume, location, lighting and props, we can find out how to create a children's film feel.

COSTUME

The costumes which we are using in our children's film opening sequence vary. For character 1, the costume is ordinary casual clothes, to show that he is just a normal school pupil, and this adds to the children's film feel because it involves children and school, so children can relate to the situation of the film. Our second character is a mysterious character, either being a witch or cloaked character. This relates to children's fantasy film because there is usually an unrealistic character with magical powers. By looking at the costumes in the fantasy adventure film 'Charlie and The Chocolate Factory' we know which costumes will best represent our genre. For example each child wears typical casual clothing, such as jeans, tracksuits, and jumpers etc. This is also how our first character will be dressed, in normal everyday clothes because that is the norm of children. Also in this film is the wacky character 'Willy Wonka' who wears dark trousers and a slightly wacky jacket and hat which doesn't really reveal much of his character but shows he is a bit strange. He carries his trademark cane and wears his well known hat. This is similar to our children's film because our second character is like Willy Wonka, in being mysterious and introvert. Therefore our second character will wear dark and mysterious clothing.

LIGHTING

Lighting is a really important part of mise-en-scene and therefore has to be just right. For our production we will have to be careful and watching lighting conditions as most of the filming will be taking place outside in a dense wooded area. This means the lighting may be quite low in places so we must be careful to pick our final locations carefully to aviod under exposure in the frames. In addition because we are filming during there is generally cloud in the sky most of the time which may give some of our shots a dull and gray look to them, we can make up for this in the post productiuon stage by editing the footage and lighting it up. Another area to consider is when we do the inside shots. although its not as much of a problem as outside filming we have to balance out the tranistion shots when going from outside to inside to avoid to much unnecessary change in light conditions. When filming inside we should make sure the character's do not have their backs to the biggest light source as this can cast heavy unflattering shadows on the face, although this could be used to our advantage we want our shots to be clear, well lit and balanced.

PROPS

Props are the movable objects used in the construction of the mise-en-scene. Props are important because they help set the scene and portray the genre. The main props that we are using for our opening sequence are; a bike, a "magical" book, a school bag and a log. We are using the bike for the school boy to cycle home from school on. We chose to do this because it's just a bit more exciting rather than walking and just makes it a bit more interesting. We are using a "magical book" to fit in with the fantasy genre as this will make the film appear authentic. We will use the school bag to help portray that the character is on his way home from school as this will help show that the film it is a children's film. Finally we are using the log within the bike stunt scene. We are using it in order for the bike to fall over so that the story line makes sense (you wouldn't normally just trip on nothing!) and as the location is in a wooded area tripping over a log makes sense. All of our props together will help create our fantasy/adventure genre because...

LOCATION

Location is an important part of mise-en-scene, because it can help the viewer to understand the storyline. For example, in the film 'Twilight', the characters are often filmed in the woods. The genre of this film is fantasy and the woods setting helps to give a mysterious and adventurous feel to the film. In our childrens film opening sequence, the main location is also the woods. This is because we liked the idea of having a mysterious place because it makes the feel more magical, therefore conveying with the whole fantasy genre.

Charlotte, Graeme and Jamila.