SWOT

How were you creative last year?

One of the aspects I did not take into account when creating the horror film trailer for GCSE and the BSR opening sequence for AS was the timing and scheduling of the productions. The filming process became very pressuring at times as the time was against us. As we filmed both of these projects late in the year, in months like November and December, it was getting very dark very early. Sorting out times for the cast to gather up and begin filming was executed well, however the dilemma occurred when we had not filmed everything that we needed to because it got dark be it became hard to edit the dark shots in post-production. Because we were shooting a horror film, it luckily made sense for it to be dark a lot of the time as it added to tone of the diegesis we were aiming to produce. We used our creativity to solve problems for the BSR opening sequence; we used the dark environment and implemented it to add to the depressing tone of BSR films which overall enhanced the verisimilitude of our narrative. This was a great solution as we did not have to gather the cast again since we had only scheduled a certain amount of days. We also used post production editing software to make the dark atmosphere a little bit lighter.

What digital technology did you use last year?

The technology we used in production included: a DSLR camera for filming and an SD memory card used a DSLE camera as it was a high quality camera which allowed us to enhance the cinematic experience and it also gave my partner and me more to work with in post-production. We used an SD memory card to store the video that we filmed. We had also used a mobile phone to record audio that we used later on for our opening sequence.

What research and planning did you do last year?

In terms of research and planning we used documents which included: a shooting script, call sheets, location reccies, production schedules and logs. The shooting script allowed us to know what we were filming during the production. We used it mainly as a base and a rough guide as to the basic shots we would need and we improved it if we had thought of anything new on the days of production. The call sheets were a vital part of planning as they verified which cast members would film on a certain day and where we would film and meet up. This was very useful and it kept our group organised. The location reccies enabled us to understand he area in which we were filming in and it allowed us to show the cast members early in pre-production stages just to ensure that they would be able to film in that location with no disturbances. Making location reccies also allowed us to think of new places to film that would increase the verisimilitude of our product rather than our school. Although the school would have much more convenient to film in, it would have not given us the desired final result that we were looking for. The production schedules and logs aided us in keeping up to date with what shots had been completed and what was left to film. It also helped us to keep on track and not accidentally miss a filming day or have to improvise with getting our cast on a random day as they were not always available

What post-production technology did you use last year?

The post production technology we had used consists of: Final Cut Pro, SD card and a camera. We used the SD card to import the footage that we were using to edit and we also used the camera again to record any sounds that did not get picked up on camera the first time. Using the camera at this stage allowed us to quickly import the sound footage as we had access to the SD card. We used Final Cut Pro on the Apple Macs supplied by the media department. We used Final Cut Pro to edit the footage together, create the titles, edit the sound and colour grade the final video.

What conventions did you study and apply to your work?

Some of the conventions that we studied included Todorov’s Narrative theory; however we did not completely stick to this guideline as we created the disruption in the opening sequence before any proper equilibrium was established. We also learned about Barthe’s enigma theory and we applied it a lot in our final product as we had many unanswered questions in the  opening sequence, mainly in terms of who characters were and some of their motives.