Scene 1, Rough Cut 1 - Audience Feedback

We have shown our first rough cut to an audience to get their constructive criticism on how we could improve it

Positives 

• They could get a good idea of the plot of the film simply from the opening scene, they could tell it was not your average love story from the voiceover at the beginning and our framing of shots
• The shot of them on the bridge was especially commented on and one audience member drew a parallel between it and a shot in a Cure for Wellness (see below)                                   
  

Points to Improve

• An audience member commented that we should either edit the close up shot of Eve's hand on the swing to be longer, remove it or place it after the wide shot
• They also commented that the shot of the two hands clasped together was a little too saturated and we should tone down the colour correction

EB

Scene 1 - Colour Correction

I have had improved my colour correction for scene 1.

Below I have put some screenshots of my efforts. In general I increased the contrast by lowering the shadows (and sometimes blacks) a bit and increasing the shadows. The cloudy day meant that I have increased both the temperature and saturation to make the film look more autumnal/end-of-summery than overcast. On the brick wall shot I added some sharpness.


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GH

Scene 1 - Filming

We arranged to meet our actors at 2pm at the location for the last shot of the scene, we made the conscious decision to film the last shot of the scene first as we wanted it to stand out from the others and to seem at bit off. We chose to convey this through the tight shot with the backdrop of a brick wall juxtaposing the previous green open shots. On top of this we hoped our chose to film it first would give the two actors took time for the chemistry to build between them so they would seem more natural together, giving off the impression that they were in fact in love in the previous shots chronologically in the film

We experienced a few problems getting the sound to work at first which held up the filming of the first shot, despite this, once we started everything went very smoothly with no problems apart from having to deal with a few passers by which was to be expected with filming in a public location.

We managed to finish filming the scene within 2 and a half hours getting every shot on our storyboard with the exception that we changed the pedalos shot to on a bridge as the pedalos were shut up because of the weather. However, it turned out for the better as the bridge which we had not noticed on our location scouting ended up being a very cinematic location.

See below a photo of us setting up to film the first shot


EB

Scene 1 - Rough Cut 1

Here is the first rough cut of our film. I have matched together the sound from the DAC and the video. This was especially tricky in the scene below because of the placement of the boom mic - it is behind the pillar nearest to the actors at the start. Because of the mic in this position, the sound of running was less than optimal. I used the sound from the camera microphone to fix this a little. The in-camera sound was fine because it's a prosumer camcorder (so designed to have good sound quality) and not a DSLR.

I also had a quick look at a first view of some colour correction/grading. I did this because it was set on a sunny day but the shooting day itself was rather overcast. It is very much a first draft but it's good to get an idea.

GH

Animatic

Here is the animatic I have created for my film to give me a good idea what the final product will look like. I got trial music from incompetence.com that matched my plan for the final music of the film and seeing it alongside the visuals helped to confirm that this is the sort of music I would like.

EB

Script - Third Draft

Here is the third draft of our script, we changed the first scene to add in dialogue between EVE and NOAH hinting at the sinister to come with her seemingly innocently asking hi if he'll always love her.
We have also added an extra line of dialogue into scene two as we realised we have too many shots in our shot list to fit in with only the two previous lines. To make time for this we shortened some of the later dialogue in the film in scene 11, we hope now apart from very minor changes that are script is complete.



EB and GH

Shot List - Second Draft

Below can be seen the second draft of our shot list, since our last draft we have updated it to match the third draft of our script, adding in several shots into the park montage to give more sinister undertones. Throughout the rest of the film several shots have been slightly edited, removed and added to perfect the shot list.



EB and GH

Location and Props Breakdown

I have used Celtx again here, this time using their 'Breakdown' feature to create an easy to read and understand breakdown of each scene, telling me what actors will be needed, at what locations and what props should be brought when filming each scene.



EB

Storyboard

Here is the storyboard for my film, I made use of some of my artistic friends to draw some of the key shots of the film with me drawing the rest, shot by shot to make filming far easier as I will have a very clear picture of what it is I want to achieve from each shot, ensuring our actors will not be left waiting while I work out the shots on set. Drawing every shot was an extremely lengthy process but it was a vital element of my planning.




EB

Music Test - First Act

Here you can see the musical test composition for our first act - This is made of three tracks, the bass piano, piano melody, and flute. Originally this was just the two piano lines but the piece sounded empty inside. I added the flute to give it some character without detracting from what I'd already made.

GH

Music Test - Third Act

GH

Sound and Music

For the first act in our trailer we have decided that we want light and piano-heavy (perhaps some strings also) music to create a relaxed atmosphere. It should have a summer feel, as well as being as minimalistic as possible.

In the second act we want the music to be more dramatic, have more instruments, and be much less relaxed.

The third act has three parts:

• The first part of the third act will be similar to the second act, but yet more dramatic and very rapid. The music should build to a climax.
• The second part of the third act will be much slower, but still share motifs with the first two to link it all together. We will add some violin (or similar) at this point to increase the creepiness.
• The third part of the third act will consist purely of the girl singing, with perhaps one instrument (A xylophone or glockenspiel if I can find one) to build the tension further

Throughout the piece we want to have a few motifs that knit the whole trailer together.

In terms of sound, we want a range of diegetic sound to build verisimilitude throughout the piece, as well as some dialogue-as-voiceover to act as a sound bridge between scenes. We will do this because it is a convention of the trailer form.

GH

Shot List - First Draft

Here is the first draft of our shot list - we used Celtx's script tagging feature to start and then filled in more shots as and when we needed them. This is of course a working document and the copy below is not final.



EB and GH

Script - Second Draft

Here is the second draft of our script - we have increased the size of the script, adding in both where our indents will go and replacing the 'Placeholder Scene' seen in the last version with an actual scene. We have also made other minor changes. We have also changed the placeholder name of the film to 'We all fall down', after the song 'ring around a rosie' which may or may not feature in the finished product. 



EB and GH

Location Scouting - House



 Here you can see the house we have chosen to use to shoot all of our inside scenes. We chose it because of the very cinematic feel we felt it had, especially at the table that we plan to shoot scene 2 at, it is next to large French Windows which will create the bright open shot we want for the first act of our film. In contrast to this, the hallway that can be seen on the right, to be used in scene 10, will work well for the Dutch angle silhouette shot of the father. The bedroom at the top above will be used in scene  8, 13 and 16, it looks like a very stereotypical teenage girl's room which is the look we are going for and we will be able to play around with a combination of natural lighting from the window and the bedside lamp see above. 

EB