Location Scouting

Today we have scouted different locations we desire for our short film. After doing many hours of planning, we decided the best locations to shoot our film were in the library, a corridor on the ground floor and outside the boys totilets on the lower ground floor. We have decided to do location scouting because we need to know where to place the camera and what camera shots we will be using. Figuring out exactly where in the rooms place the camera is appropriate and has to be done carefully because a small difference in real life will make a big difference to what's seen though the camera.

Examples of Camera Shots

As learned from the previous post, the shots we intend on using in our film were establishing shots, long shots, mid shots, close ups and point of views.

Establishing Shot
 

Long Shot





Mid Shot

Close Up



Point of View

Shot List for Film Opening

1) Establishing Scene

• Establishing shot of the outside of the school, from a certain angle

• Establishing shot of the outside of the school, from a semi-perpendicular angle

• Long shot of the school building near the main hall

2) Theft Scene

• Mid shot of Mortada playing the piano from a perpendicular angle

• Close up on Mortada's hands closing the piano

• Panning of Ben walking towards the main hall's back door

• Mid shot of Mortada getting up while Ben is hiding behind the door

• Point of view (guardian angel) high angle long shot of the whole main hall (using the fisheye lens).

• Horizontally angled mid shot of Mortada wearing his jacket and Ben stealing his phone

• Point of view (guardian angel) high angle long shot of the whole main hall (using the fisheye lens).

• Long shot of Mortada realising he lost his phone

3) Pursuit Scene

• Panning point of view shot (guardian angel) following Ben walking down the stairs

• Low angle mid shot of Ben gradually walking down the stairs

• Panning longshot from Ben walking out of the building back to the building where the guardian angel reveals himself

• Long shot of Ben walking around the corner

• Mid shot of guardian angel following Ben stealthily

• Point of view (guardian angel) looking at Ben making a phone call

• Close up of Ben making a phone call

• Wide shot of Ben walking away with guardian angel behind him

4) Murder Scene

• Close up of Ben washing his face while Ali hides behind him

• Point of view (Ben) walking towards door and unexpectedly gets hit by Ali's bat

• Point of view (Ben) Ben drops to the ground seeing the weapon

• Point of view (guardian angel) looks at Ben's dead body

• Point of view (guardian angel) dragging Ben's body into a hidden room

• Wide shot of Mortada finding his phone

• Point of view (Mortada) discovering Ben's dead body and seeing the guardian angel

Drawing the Storyboard

Today we dedicated the day to planning but more specifically: drawing the storyboard. We needed to draw a storyboard because we need a visual clarification of what our shots will look like through the camera and a blueprint for where we will position the camera in the location we're shooting. In the sotryboard we included the angle where the camera will be placed, movement within the shot and what's on screen e.g actors and props. This will be useful because with the storyboard we will know on the day of shooting where to place the cameras and which angles to include.

The Story

The film starts off with an introduction of the victim, Mortada. Ben steals Mortada's phone whilst he's off guard.As Ben steal Mortada's phone, the guardian angel (killer) is watching him commit this crime. Ben then runs away with his phone and makes a phone call to his friend to meet him up somewhere whilst not knowing that the guardian angel is following him. Ben then is killed by the guardian angel unexpectedly in the toilets and has his body hidden in a room. Mortada then goes to the toilets to surprisingly finding his phone again but discovers Ben's dead body and the guardian angel.

Scheduling

It was necessary for both of us to create a schedule for the activities that required to be done when making the film because by being organised and working by a set time, we can keep up with all of our work and ensure everything is done to a high standard. For this to be done, we sat down and wrote down all the free periods we have in the week and any other time we're willing to work e.g lunchtime and after school.

Sammid's Free Periods and Free Time:

Monday: P1, After school
Tuesday: After school
Friday: P3, P5, P6

Mortada's Free Periods and Free Time

Monday: P1, P2
Tuesday: P1, P2, After School
Wednesday: P2
Friday: P3, P4,

As you can see the from the information above, the time where both of us are free is Monday P1, Tuesday after school and Friday P3. But with the other time we can spare, we will allocate it to doing independant work so that includes either editing what we've recorded or working on the blog. On top of all of this, we have our usual Media Studies class every Thursday P3 and P4 and Friday P1 and P2 so that's an extra 3 and a half hours we have to work together. In total, we both can work together for roughly about 6 hours every week which is a good sum of time to ensure we get the film done to the highest quality.

Introduction to Film Opening

In today's media studies lesson, we were given a new assignment to create a 2 minute film opening.We were aware of our task ahead of us but we needed some inspiration to get our ideas running throufgh so Mr Mcmanus kindly showed us some of the best movie openings. We particularly enjoyed Narc and Good Fellas. We understood we had to match what the crieteria expected from us. A lot of work needs to be done for this projected, so we decided to do some planning in our free periods.