With only 5 days until the interim deadline of our coursework the heat is on.
Though we're making constant progress and we are on target, things are still getting on top of us. Our group has so many valuable ideas bouncing off each other in every session, sometimes it's hard to make the visions we all have of our soap trailer reality. Compromise is definitely key. All our ideas means a lot of changing and editing: 'perfectionists' springs to mind.
Tomorrow, in our before and after school sessions, we are aiming to have finished the whole of the trailer, particularly editing the voice over to fit the music, which is proving more difficult than we thought. The acting, the voice over and the music is all perfectly inkeeping and exactly what we wanted, however physically editing these components together is pretty tasking. We also need to get the speed of the trailer right - fast, exciting, intense. We have already accomplished this feel in the first few edits and it's proved successful, we just need to make it consistent!
The whole production is falling into place now and it's looking hopeful that we are on our way to a good grade for our A2 production work!
Tuesday, 7 December 2010
Tuesday, 23 November 2010
Beginning of Editing
Although all that has happened, we have at least managed to upload our media footage onto the Mac's, with difficulty at first. We started the editing of the footage this afternoon, and although again the technology was faulty to begin with, it came round and we started work. We started to edit the 'tarts' and their walk, we had ideas to mix the pace of editing to make it stand out more, and to emphasize their importance and their effect on the school. Originally, the pace was slow to begin with starting from the feet to the thigh, then the sequence was sped up. This did not work because the walk and the speed of the walk didn't fit in with our soundtrack. We overcame this issue by changing the pace again. We feel confident that we are going to edit everything on time and that we have made a good start with our trailer.
From Filming to Editing: Group 3's Story
Last post: 1st November. It's been a few weeks, here's what's been happening.
We have lived and breathed media these last few weeks and have taken some major steps in our production. However positive we were feeling about our project we were not ruling out having to write another 'filming faux pas' blog. But now the filming is over and nothing has gone wrong! Everything has been running as smoothly as clockwork. We have been meeting up and discussing our individual progress, for example Camillla's music, Mia's poster, Natalia's editing ideas and Jess's blogging and camera work. We are thoroughly enjoying our time together as a group, sharing our inspirations and ideas, doing some acting together and working closely from the storyboard to create, what will be, our masterpiece!
Minus all the preparation and discussion in between this is the schedule of our main production work:
November 9th - In our soap trailer there is a fight scene resulting from a girl throwing a netball at another girl in the changing rooms. We used a number of different camera angles and techniques, including a point of view shot and the hand held camera technique to create the sense of disorientation. Actresses that we had used previously in our filming were used as extras to create a more believable school atmosphere and the sense of continuity. Following the filming, we took the final images for our poster. The actresses were brilliant, which I believe was the result of good, clear communication and a firm grip on what we wanted the finished product to look like.
November 16th - Throughout our trailer we have a voice over from the head teacher of 'The Academy'. We thought this would bring a unique edge to the trailer. Mr Roy, a drama teacher at our school, was terrific. The filming was over in a matter of minutes, with no re-filming to do or doubts about whether it would work. We fed him the lines and he fed them back to us with a dramatic flair we would have expected in a perfect and ideal soap opera trailer.
November 18th - Last day of filming. We only had a few short scenes to do for the montage we are planning for the end of the trailer. However, we were expecting these scenes to take a lot longer as they were slightly risque. They involve boys of a sexual nature. We were able to use camera techniques to create the illusion certain activities were happening, for example a boy reaching out to grab a girl's bottom. In actuallity, this took no time at all. The boys were very professional and understood what they had to do and got on with it. There may have been a few giggles along the way, but the scenes turned out perfectly and there was no embarassment caused. A sign of great actors and filming direction!
Yesterday, November 22nd, it was time for the gloves to come off and get the storyboards out once again, upload all our hard work from the last couple of months onto the Macs and make a start on editing. I believe that all the work we put in will make a huge difference to how difficult editing will be. In fact, I think the number of choices and various shots we have are going to be the biggest hurdle. How will we choose! Although, we are realistic, we know it will be time consuming, but that's what it takes to create a true work of media art. In this session, we decided as a group what our favourite parts were and weren't, what would fit in where, and which parts of the storyboard may have to be changed slightly.
This week we have booked one of the school Macs on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. We aim to get all our editing done and think this is a realistic goal. Expect lots of blogging of our editing progress!
We have lived and breathed media these last few weeks and have taken some major steps in our production. However positive we were feeling about our project we were not ruling out having to write another 'filming faux pas' blog. But now the filming is over and nothing has gone wrong! Everything has been running as smoothly as clockwork. We have been meeting up and discussing our individual progress, for example Camillla's music, Mia's poster, Natalia's editing ideas and Jess's blogging and camera work. We are thoroughly enjoying our time together as a group, sharing our inspirations and ideas, doing some acting together and working closely from the storyboard to create, what will be, our masterpiece!
Minus all the preparation and discussion in between this is the schedule of our main production work:
November 9th - In our soap trailer there is a fight scene resulting from a girl throwing a netball at another girl in the changing rooms. We used a number of different camera angles and techniques, including a point of view shot and the hand held camera technique to create the sense of disorientation. Actresses that we had used previously in our filming were used as extras to create a more believable school atmosphere and the sense of continuity. Following the filming, we took the final images for our poster. The actresses were brilliant, which I believe was the result of good, clear communication and a firm grip on what we wanted the finished product to look like.
November 16th - Throughout our trailer we have a voice over from the head teacher of 'The Academy'. We thought this would bring a unique edge to the trailer. Mr Roy, a drama teacher at our school, was terrific. The filming was over in a matter of minutes, with no re-filming to do or doubts about whether it would work. We fed him the lines and he fed them back to us with a dramatic flair we would have expected in a perfect and ideal soap opera trailer.
November 18th - Last day of filming. We only had a few short scenes to do for the montage we are planning for the end of the trailer. However, we were expecting these scenes to take a lot longer as they were slightly risque. They involve boys of a sexual nature. We were able to use camera techniques to create the illusion certain activities were happening, for example a boy reaching out to grab a girl's bottom. In actuallity, this took no time at all. The boys were very professional and understood what they had to do and got on with it. There may have been a few giggles along the way, but the scenes turned out perfectly and there was no embarassment caused. A sign of great actors and filming direction!
Yesterday, November 22nd, it was time for the gloves to come off and get the storyboards out once again, upload all our hard work from the last couple of months onto the Macs and make a start on editing. I believe that all the work we put in will make a huge difference to how difficult editing will be. In fact, I think the number of choices and various shots we have are going to be the biggest hurdle. How will we choose! Although, we are realistic, we know it will be time consuming, but that's what it takes to create a true work of media art. In this session, we decided as a group what our favourite parts were and weren't, what would fit in where, and which parts of the storyboard may have to be changed slightly.
This week we have booked one of the school Macs on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. We aim to get all our editing done and think this is a realistic goal. Expect lots of blogging of our editing progress!
Monday, 1 November 2010
Filming Faux Pas
Today we had a session scheduled for filming the next part of our soap trailer storyboard, and our group being very dedicated and enthusiastic towards our media project turned up on time with the actors and the equipment we needed. But, and I'm sure you knew a 'but' was coming due to the title of this post, we suffered a major problem. A member of the site staff of our school told us the school was now closed and no one was allowed to go there in the half term. This left my group and I in a dilema as we must do all our filming in our half term to meet our A2 deadline. Our first ickling was to relocate the setting of our filming, however with a number of successful scenes having been already filmed in the school we came to the conclusion we would not have enough time to redo all our scenes; we wouldn't have enough time to book the cameras and our actors would not all be willing to redo the scenes. Through the production of our media project we now understand not everything goes smoothly however thoroughly you seem to plan it.
This unfortunate turn of events today got us thinking about all the other things that haven't gone quite to plan and I can say with complete honesty none of these faux pas have been our fault.
Day 1: We planned to film in the drama department with Mr Roy, our kind drama teacher who agreed to be the 'headteacher' in our soap trailer. The filming was successful and Mr Roy was terrific, he helped us a lot and he improvised his lines slightly, really getting into the dramatic scene. Our group was so happy with the first part of our filming and had high hopes for the rest of it. BUT later on that day we were told we were given the wrong camera to film with through no fault of our own, the camera we used was not compatible with the apple macs and we had no choice but to redo this scene, therefore needing to reschedule the group, camera and actors. Although we were disappointed, we knew we had lots of time to correct it and we didn't let it get to us.
Day 2: The second time we filmed we got to the media department to find that the cameras that were left for us were either broken or not compatible with the apple macs. Furthermore the camera we had booked for filming that day had been mistakenly taken by another group. We refused to waste another day of filming as it had come to our attention there wasn't many occasions where all the actors would be available. The English department was our final option. Luckily, there was one camera we could get our hands on there that was compatible, however it wasn't charged. All in all about an hour had been wasted by this. Fortunately the actors were very understanding and helped us out a lot which they shouldn't have been expected to do.
Day 3: Cameras working, charged and compatible, actors present and willing, and members of the group raring to go, we were definitely on to a winner with the third day of filming. Unfortunately, the actors had forgotten their school uniforms that were needed for the mis-en-scene of the scene and it wasn't appropiate to send them home to get them. We had to improvise the scene and create a reason why they weren't wearing their uniform. Note to group: next time we film bring costumes even if the actors say they will.
That brings us to Day 4 of filming, today. We had the idea of doing more photographs for the poster of the soap, however we were not able to use the same backdrop as we did for all the other photographs we had already taken and so we were totally stuck. However, we like to find a positive aspect of everything we do and at least today we were able to explain to our actors exactly what we were planning to do so it will be an easier and more straightforward process next time.
Let's hope our careful planning for Day 5 will pay off this time.
This unfortunate turn of events today got us thinking about all the other things that haven't gone quite to plan and I can say with complete honesty none of these faux pas have been our fault.
Day 1: We planned to film in the drama department with Mr Roy, our kind drama teacher who agreed to be the 'headteacher' in our soap trailer. The filming was successful and Mr Roy was terrific, he helped us a lot and he improvised his lines slightly, really getting into the dramatic scene. Our group was so happy with the first part of our filming and had high hopes for the rest of it. BUT later on that day we were told we were given the wrong camera to film with through no fault of our own, the camera we used was not compatible with the apple macs and we had no choice but to redo this scene, therefore needing to reschedule the group, camera and actors. Although we were disappointed, we knew we had lots of time to correct it and we didn't let it get to us.
Day 2: The second time we filmed we got to the media department to find that the cameras that were left for us were either broken or not compatible with the apple macs. Furthermore the camera we had booked for filming that day had been mistakenly taken by another group. We refused to waste another day of filming as it had come to our attention there wasn't many occasions where all the actors would be available. The English department was our final option. Luckily, there was one camera we could get our hands on there that was compatible, however it wasn't charged. All in all about an hour had been wasted by this. Fortunately the actors were very understanding and helped us out a lot which they shouldn't have been expected to do.
Day 3: Cameras working, charged and compatible, actors present and willing, and members of the group raring to go, we were definitely on to a winner with the third day of filming. Unfortunately, the actors had forgotten their school uniforms that were needed for the mis-en-scene of the scene and it wasn't appropiate to send them home to get them. We had to improvise the scene and create a reason why they weren't wearing their uniform. Note to group: next time we film bring costumes even if the actors say they will.
That brings us to Day 4 of filming, today. We had the idea of doing more photographs for the poster of the soap, however we were not able to use the same backdrop as we did for all the other photographs we had already taken and so we were totally stuck. However, we like to find a positive aspect of everything we do and at least today we were able to explain to our actors exactly what we were planning to do so it will be an easier and more straightforward process next time.
Let's hope our careful planning for Day 5 will pay off this time.
Thursday, 28 October 2010
More photos
Today we took more photographs for the soap opera poster and we also shot a couple of scenes. Both were completed very successfully.
Below are a few of the best photographs we took today:
Below are a few of the best photographs we took today:
Tuesday, 26 October 2010
Filming
Yesterday was the first time we were able to film some scenes for our soap opera trailer. Although we had technical difficulties with the limited amount of cameras that worked/had battery we managed to push through and film some of the significant scenes from our storyboard.
We shot the clips several times and from many different angles which will enable us to fit them together when editing to creating a more interesting and creative trailer for the viewers. In the two hours we set aside for filming we managed to shoot around 4 minutes worth of footage however this will need to be reduced significantly so that it can fit into our trailer.
We have next scheduled to film on Thursday 28th October and we will be filming another significant scene with quite a lot of actors involved. Fingers crossed that it all goes to plan.
We shot the clips several times and from many different angles which will enable us to fit them together when editing to creating a more interesting and creative trailer for the viewers. In the two hours we set aside for filming we managed to shoot around 4 minutes worth of footage however this will need to be reduced significantly so that it can fit into our trailer.
We have next scheduled to film on Thursday 28th October and we will be filming another significant scene with quite a lot of actors involved. Fingers crossed that it all goes to plan.
Monday, 25 October 2010
Photo shoots for TV Listings & Poster
We arranged with our actors that today we were going to take the photographs for the poster and the tv listings magazine. We did this with great success due to the co-operation with the actors and some brilliant ideas coming through. Below are a few of the photographs we have taken. We are now in the process of editing them so that they can be used in print production.
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| This photograph will be positioned at the top of the poster |
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| This is the raw image and after editing I will cut out any imperfections |
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| Us with our supportive actors |
Monday, 18 October 2010
Storylines
We have just finished completing which storylines our trailer will include. We all looked at various soaps, such as Neighbours, Eastenders, Corrie, Emmerdale and Hollyoaks too look at which storylines are used in their soaps and see the comparisons between our soap. We found that soaps focus a lot on relationships, this is because their intended target audience is women and women like to watch various relationships. We classed this as a convention because it is common within soaps, therefore we decided to follow this convention and use a relationship narrative. We have included several relationship narratives, a couple in love, which will feature on our trailer for a couple of seconds because we don't want to give all our storylines away, we have done this to another couple as well because then it only gives our audience a sample of what is going to happen, leaving them wanting to find out more. Our main relationship storyline, is a couple who are also in love, but turns to a love triangle when another girl tries to get the boy as her boyfriend instead. This narrative takes a dark twist, as she begins to obsess and stalk the boy in her attempts to win him. We decided to take this twist because we wanted our soap to be different in the sense that there is humour involved, but also underlying messages as well. Our stalker storyline will feature in the trailer to show the audience our different edge.
We also decided on our name 'The Academy.' We have called our soap this because again, we are following the conventions of a soap, Eastenders is named after the place, Coronation street is named after the street, Byker Grove is named after the school. So although the actual place/school is not called the Academy, it is clear that this is a school and we are following the conventions because we are naming our soap what it is. It took a long time to come up with this idea as we were unsure of whether to name it the actual school, which is Hammersmith Academy, or just the Academy on it's on. We thought the Academy had more edge too it and was less long-winded then the Hammersmith Academy.
We are now researching other soap trailers to give us an idea of what to include/leave out/what to tease etc. We have spilt our groups up into two, to make it quicker for us to look up these codes and conventions, as we hope to get the most realistic trailer as possible.
We also decided on our name 'The Academy.' We have called our soap this because again, we are following the conventions of a soap, Eastenders is named after the place, Coronation street is named after the street, Byker Grove is named after the school. So although the actual place/school is not called the Academy, it is clear that this is a school and we are following the conventions because we are naming our soap what it is. It took a long time to come up with this idea as we were unsure of whether to name it the actual school, which is Hammersmith Academy, or just the Academy on it's on. We thought the Academy had more edge too it and was less long-winded then the Hammersmith Academy.
We are now researching other soap trailers to give us an idea of what to include/leave out/what to tease etc. We have spilt our groups up into two, to make it quicker for us to look up these codes and conventions, as we hope to get the most realistic trailer as possible.
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