Filming & Editing the Main Exercise - 'Watch Your Back'

Today, Tuesday 23rd March, we filmed our main exercise in the subway under the roundabout by the Jubilee Clock, Weymouth. The brief was to film an opening sequence to a new fiction film to last around 2 minutes long. We chose to produce the opening to a horror/thriller film, consisting of a girl being followed down a subway by her ex-boyfriend who is seeking revenge.

The weather today was the first problem we had as it was drizzling and quite foggy, but this will hopefully add to the effect of the film as a pathetic fallacy, setting a dark and gloomy feel to our film. We overcame this problem by using an umbrella to cover the camera equipment when we were filming outside of the subway, but most of the time we were covered from the rain by the subway roof. Another problem was that as we were filming in a public place there was quite a lot of people which disrupted our filming so we had to keep stopping and waiting for them to walk past, but it wasn't as bad as it could have been. Despite interruptions, we managed to film everything we needed to in about 2 and a half hours and we did not have to go back and re-film anything.

We left college at half four, with a few changes of plan as Amy was ill and couldn't come and film, so we asked her to tell her friend who was supposed to be acting that we would use my friend James to take his part as it would be easier for him to get there as he lives a lot closer, he's studying Drama at college and he was willing to do it. After we left college we went to James' house to film the flashbacks which show the girl and boy fighting and arguing, explaining why he wants revenge and chases her down the subway. After we finished filming the flashbacks indoors we got the bus to the subway and started filming there. Earlier in the day I had called the local police station and got a reference number in case they were called as our opening sequence includes mild violence and screaming, so it was good that we had done that to make sure we were allowed to film there so we didn't have to worry.

We did various shots of the girl walking down the subway with the hooded male following her, and we added in an over the shoulder shot of the male looking down at the girl walking towards the subway which I think would be effective as it is further away and shows the point of view of the guy. This also hides the identity of the male for fe moments longer which i think adds suspense and mystery to the opening sequence. There may be a continuity problem, though, as it was getting dark as we filmed so it may be darker at the end of our opening sequence compared to the first shots of the girl entering the subway. This may be problematic as it is an issue of continuity if the lighting changes dramatically in our short sequence, but it may also work in our favour to add to the sinister ending of our opening sequence.

Overall, I think our filming went well and we did stick to our storyboards, apart from adding in a few shots that we think will work when editing it. We couldn't film the last shot of the moon as it was too foggy and we couldn't see it, so we shot Miaa's (our actress') hand grabbing a railing and then slipping down with a high pitched scream in the background. Then after there would be a shot of the empty subway, highlighting the eerie and sinister event that just occurred.

We edited the film on Windows Movie Maker and then added in the titles on Adobe Premiere Pro. We used effects like highlighting flashbacks in grey to make sure the reader understands it is just a flashback to avoid continuity problems. With Movie Maker we also blended the shots in together so as not to make each shot jump quickly to another and this adds to the continuity of it. We made sure that each shot leads on to the other correctly, with characters in the places they should be, having not changed their position etc. Adobe Premiere allowed us to use a black screen at the beginning on our opening sequence which blended into the establishing shot of the seafront on a drizzly, dark day. This transition makes the film look more professional as the company title first comes up reading : 'an Absent Friends Production'. We then put in the name of the director and then the names of the actors starring in our opening sequence. Then we added in the name of the Producer and Editor and finally the name of the film - 'Watch Your Back' in larger white letters more central to the screen. We put this in at an appropriate point when the male, hooded character starts to follow the girl down the subway.

At the beginning of the opening sequence there are just ambient sounds, diagetic noises of the road of the girl walking down the subway silently. The music only starts when you see the hooded male walk down the steps of the subway, and the tempo increases and builds up, adding suspense to the scene. The non-diegetic music only kicks in when he appears round the wall of the subway and into view, stalking the unaware female. We chose to make sure the music properly kicks in at the right point to add to the effect of the opening sequence and to the mis-en-scene. Ambient noises create and eerie feeling at the end of the opening sequence when there is a pan of the empty subway and this editing that cuts from the shot of the hand slipping off the railing with the girl screaming to an abandoned and creepy underpass would help signify the end of the opening credits and the beginning to the film, with the opening bit of action over, leaving the audience with a mystery and making them more interested and engaged in the film and finding out about the plot.

Screen Shot of Editing 1 - Adding titles to our film

Screen Shot of Editing 2 - Fading black to establishing shot

Screen Shot of Editing 3 - Fading between shots of girl walking

Location For Main Exercise

The location for our opening title sequence to our horror/thriller film 'Watch Your Back' is at the esplanade subway under the roundabout by the Jubilee Clock in Weymouth.

Photos of the location are from Google maps street view and photos we took when we visited the location.

I think this location would add to the mis-en-scene of the opening to the horror/thriller we are making as the graffiti on the subway walls would help represent negative stereotypes of youth culture and vandalism and crime. This will conform to the codes and conventions of the genre and will help relate to the audience. The subway is also very eerie at night time which will add to the mis-en-scene, with only artificial underground lighting.

Main Exercise Paperwork

Links to Production Paperwork:
Storyboard 1
Storyboard 2
Storyboard 3
Storyboard 4
Location - info
Location 2 -info
Location Recce - Subway
Location Recce - House
Script
Production Brief
Research of Films of the same Genre
SWOT Analysis
Production Call Sheet
Risk Assessment
Risk Assessment 2

The First Reflective Main Exercise Blog Entry

The main exercise has many differences to the preliminary exercise and I am aware that it will be much harder, but more interesting. Firstly, there will need to be more detailed research into our genre, which we have chosen to be horror/thriller. This research will help us construct our own opening to a horror/thriller movie, with the use of credits. It will allow us to learn about typical codes and conventions of the certain genre which will help us to plan our own opening sequence that is well produced and features and represents common ideologies or stereotypes in modern Britain.

This exercise allows our group to have more freedom which is good but quite a scary prospect as there are not specifications other than that it has to be a 2 minute opening to a fiction film, whereas the preliminary exercise was more specific. Our planning will also take a lot longer to do than the first exercise as it is longer, so longer scripts and detailed storyboards of all the shots in the 2 minutes will have to be produced very particularly and carefully.

As we are again planning to film outside in a subway in Weymouth, we have also got to think of the risks and hazards, especially as we plan to film when it is darker. We have thought and planned more carefully though and we have decided to film on a college evening so we will all be able to make it to the filming which was a problem that occurred last time.

The main stumbling points found by the SWOT analysis are mainly that often not all of our group are in Media lessons at the same time, so it is important for all of us to stay in contact if we can't make it to lessons and also to make sure everyone is involved in the planning of the opening sequence. Our strengths as a group are that we are all comfortable enough now to work with each other so we can all contribute significantly to idea in the preparation of filming. A weakness that faltered our filming last time was that one member couldn't make it to the filming because of transport but this can be overcome this time as all of our group plan to make our way to the location which is close to college at the end of the college day next week.

Personally, I intend to improve firstly, my communication with the group if there are any problems or if I can't make it to lessons because it is unfair on the group as a whole. I think now that we all know each other better and our group did't change round that we all communicate better as well. Secondly I want to improve my organisation in the planning of the film as I think last time I didn't fully contribute at all times to the planning. I think now that all of us feel more comfortable to contribute and share ideas which will hopefully improve the outcome of our film in the main exercise. Thirdly, I really want our film to be really effective as a horror film, so I'd like to make the filming as good as possible, making sure it is quite tense and scary. I also want to be more involved in the editing of the film as last time I wasn't so I'd like to learn to do that so I would have involvement in the entire planning, production and editing of our film, therefore feeling like I've achieved more from the final outcome. I also want to make sure I play a better role in the actual filming of our film because last time I felt I didn't take to my position as the director for it as well.