Filming Day 3 - Big Mead Part 2

Knowing I had two scenes to film at the Big Mead, I opted to finish off the sequence I had already started and continue from where I'd left off. Thankfully the weather was the same as when I'd shot here on my first day, so the continuity wouldn't be disrupted by the colour differences in the sky. I had rewatched the footage from previously so that I knew exactly where on the path I needed to position the characters to start filming from. This is where I was standing in the last shot on the timeline and so it was the point from where I started shooting this time. 

 

The initial bulk of new footage extended my short film to a duration of 11 minutes 37 seconds.

Trimming the beginning and end of each shot cut my length down to 9 minutes and 47 seconds. 

This is the depth of field shot that I had planned in Shot 55 of my storyboard, where the Father turns back suspiciously. Although I didn't frame the shot as closely as I had originally intended, I think that I have still captured an engaging two shot with the characters at different depths in the frame. 

This is supposed to represent the POV of the Father as he turns to look back, expecting to see someone when in fact there is no-one in sight. I think that this will be visually appealing once edited together because audiences will expect to see Dylan standing there, and so this sudden disappearance adds to the elusive and tense atmosphere established by the two characters.  

The camera then cuts to higher up the path and pans left to reveal Dylan hidden behind a tree, concealed from the Father and Son. I think that these are important shots to maintain some of the suspense which has diffused once Dylan holsters his gun in the earlier scenes. The anticipation here is arising from whether the two characters will interact and so when Dylan is almost spotted this contributes to the ongoing expectation that they will cross paths at some point in the narrative. 

These two shots were very important to me and reflect Shot 60 and Shot 61 from my storyboard. They are not landscape shots, but they are tilt shots when the characters exit the Big Mead, tilting up towards the sky. It is noticeable that the skies in the two shots are varying shades of brightness, and the first screenshot is from the shot with the Father and Son, with the light blue reflecting the calm and positive emotional states of their relationship. The second is a more sombre sky, captured from Dylan's shot and reflecting his confusion. These images have not been manipulated whatsoever which is why I wanted to mention them, because the natural presence of the forest helped to conceal some of the light when filming Dylan and consequently blocked the sun from making the shot appear too colourful. So the weather and the natural setting worked to my advantage and created a very visual juxtaposition of the characters. 

Having sorted through the individual takes, my narrative now has a running time of 7 minutes 31 seconds. This was a very efficient scene to film since I had a clear idea of what had come before it and so it was a case of learning from the mistakes of day 1 and approaching the task with a more informed perspective. today. 

Filming Day 3 - The Car Park

Day 3 was a very organised and full on experience. I intended to shoot the remainder of the car park scene very early in the morning since all I needed was close ups and interior shots of Dylan in his car. I had already filmed the shots that required my dad so I decided that this was the easiest and best place to start, because I already had material to reflect on.
However, the main problem for me with this scene was framing aesthetically engaging shots, because the camera has very little manoeuvrability when actually inside the car, and there is a limited variation to work with outside. As a result I found myself experimenting a lot more with this sequence in an attempt to film with a visual flair.  The best work to take inspiration from here was the film Locke, which takes place entirely in a car as one man's life unfolds during one dramatic drive. This film successfully engages the viewer for an hour and a half when all there is to film is the driver and the car, so I filmed from a variety of angles after watching some clips in the hopes of displaying some ingenuity. 

Even though I didn't film that many shots, many were complex and needed multiple takes before I got them right. Consequently my running time is 13 minutes unedited. 

This 11 minutes and 5 seconds is the running time after I had deleted all of the failed shots and trimmed each clip to only include the content that would be in the narrative. 

What I want to draw attention to here is not the shot, but the Mise en scene within the frame. This photograph was a last minute prop that I decided would help the audience to visualise Dylan's childhood with his brother, especially since I had cut the scene with his monologue and changed the dialogue from the voiceover. I needed a photo from home, and so I used one of me and my brother to help identify the contrast between what Dylan used to be like (dressing up and playful) with what he has become (a brooding and ominous threat). So I altered this scene slightly to emotionally engage with the fact that Dylan is both reminiscing and avenging his brother's loss. It will be an appropriate shot to supplement the voiceover.  

This is another unplanned shot which could potentially act as an establishing shot. For some reason I love the rusty look of the posts because it adds to how Dylan is in an abandoned and isolated spot, unused. From a visual perspective I also think that the canted angle and obstructed view of the protagonist in the car is a great way to tease his introduction, placing the viewer at a distance where they can't quite make a judgement of him. 

This was my planned establishing shot, and it turned out to be a nightmare to shoot. Because this shot required manually zooming and tilting, I couldn't just set the camera up on the tripod and record it myself, so I needed my mum to do the cinematography whilst I acted. Therefore it was very difficult to both tilt and zoom at a steady rate, as I had found when doing the focus shift and panning a couple of days ago. The alcohol can was also very difficult to throw blindly out of the window into a position where the camera could zoom in rather than have to move to capture. I have lots of takes to sort through here but at the moment I am unsure on whether I will stick to using it as my opening shot, since it didn't quite seem as cinematic as the opening shot of Mad Max: Fury Road, from which I took inspiration. 

The screenshot above is from the movie Locke, and I have used it to show the effectiveness of the shot that I have chosen to replicate. The mirror acts as a form of self judgement, but also a distorted image of the protagonist that is interesting due to how you can't visualise all of the character. As an interior shot of the car I think that this works very evocatively because it enables the audience to focus on the character by looking at him through another object, thus varying the ways in which the camera frames him. One other thing I want to acknowledge is that I have trimmed the film down to a length that just exceeds 6 minutes. With so much filming still to do, cause for concern may be justified since I have already run over the running time limit, but I am treating this as a way to have more than enough footage that I can then be selective from. 

One possible flaw from this morning was the weather. Unlike the other day when the sky was grey and cloudy, this morning was bright blue and clear. Therefore when I cut the scene together there may be some discontinuity caused by the sudden change in weather, but I am hoping that I can play about with the colour contrast on iMovie to reduce how noticeable this is. 

Filming Day 3

Considering that I want all my filming done by the end of this week (25th December) so that I can start editing my narrative together properly during the second half of next week (I am leaving the Christmas period for myself to have a study break), I had reserved today entirely for shooting. My plan was to get most of, if not all of the footage, completed over the course of the day. 

I planned to shoot the scenes in the following order:

• Remainder of shots at the car park
• Remainder of shots at Big Mead part 2
• Entire scene at Big Mead part 1
• Entire scene at Luccombe
• Entire scene at the Roadside

This is because once I have finished the scenes I have already started (Car Park and Big Mead part 2) I want to film in chronological order. Trying to film all of this in one day will be a much easier process if I am shooting in a logical, narrative way. By filming sequentially I won't have to consider continuity to such an extent because I will be progressively moving from one location to the next, and consequently from one scene to the next. 

I am going to talk about each location/scene on a separate post, and this is because I have filmed multiple scenes today so there will be too much to talk about in depth on one post. I shall add each scene onto the timeline in the order specified above. 

Filming Day 2

Today I filmed the opening scene of my narrative, where Dylan is at the car park waiting for the Father's arrival. The weather was very grey and overcast, perfect for reflecting the mood of the scene, but a downpour started whilst I was midway through filming and so I couldn't film the entire sequence. As a result, like with the Big Mead, I shall have to return to this location in order to finish shooting some other day. Since I was unsure at the time of my dad's working schedule, I made sure that I had filmed all of the planned shots with him in so that if I did need to return to film I would be able to come alone. 

In terms of footage, today wasn't as productive as my first day, and overall I only managed to get 27 shots due to the unpredictability of the weather. However I successfully filmed the integral parts to the scene and also filmed some shots of the surroundings that could possibly act as cutaways if I wanted them. When I dragged all of my new footage onto the timeline, I made sure that I put them before the Big Mead shots since I knew that narratively this scene would precede it. At the moment the running time is 8 minutes and 31 seconds, but I am going to follow the same steps I used before to shorten this length. Firstly I am going to cut down each individual shot by removing the shouts of 'action' and 'cut', and then I shall sort through the shots for which I have multiple takes and select the one which is the best, removing the others. 

With the unsuccessful shots and the director's shouts edited out, I am now left with 5 minutes and 43 seconds (Big Mead sequence included). Even though I am aware that the scenes are going to be too long, I am going to leave all of the good shots in the film until I have completed filming and editing, at which point I shall then start to cut out shots that aren't necessary and don't add anything to the film. For now though, I don't want to be too selective. 

The reason this sequence is so long at the moment is mainly the result of one shot. This is Shot 19 from my storyboard (shown above), the push focus that introduces the Father into the narrative. Due to its importance I wanted to ensure that this shot was filmed perfectly and that the focus shift happened gradually and steadily. It was a difficult shot to master because not only did I have to change the focus dial manually, but I also had to slowly pan the camera from left to right to follow the character on screen at the same time. Consequently I recorded 5 separate takes that I will be able to choose between. 

Shot 21 from my storyboard was also very complicated from a practical perspective. I had to use a tracking shot to follow my dad walking, and so I had to walk backwards so that I could film him from a side angle but also keep up with his speed. The main issue here was keeping the camera balanced and steady, whilst also making sure that Dylan's car is kept in the background out of focus. 

I have now edited the scene so that in total the running time is 3 minutes 55 seconds. In terms of pacing I know that it will be very slow and so I will make sure that once I have completed filming I start to cut shots that delay the progression of the narrative. 

Although this wasn't originally planned on my storyboard, this is one of my favourite shots of the day. The slightly out of focus shot of the roadside is both visually engaging but also narratively poignant. I think that I will use it towards the beginning in order to foreshadow the plot of the film, because the canted angle and close up are aesthetically enticing.  

As you can see above, the first 48 seconds of my current edit are all possible insert shots to cutaway to during the film. I have no intention of using them all, nor am I sure if I will use any, but at the moment I am leaving them here to refer back to at later points. These were all spontaneous shots of the environment that I found potentially significant on the day of filming.

When watching this updated version of my film, bear in mind that it will appear disjointed and nonsensical due to the fact that it is very incomplete and only in the early stages of the editing process. Even the scenes which I have filmed aren't complete yet so this is a very rough cut of my work so far, and is a while away from taking shape at this point in time. 

Rethinking My Film Classification

After changing the screenplay I thought that I could also lower the age certification on my short film. I don't want to change my audience, only the certification. I still want my audience to respond to the content maturely and thoughtfully, but on a legal and promotional level my short film is more likely to be financially successful if it is available to more people. 

My screenplay no longer use profanity because I thought that in a voiceover it wouldn't be effective. Plus there is now much less background depth focusing on Dylan's upbringing as a 'street kid', as I have condensed this down to keep the narrative relevant to the events that unfold on screen. Although it adds to the characterisation of Dylan and explains his drastic actions, I think that in a short film audiences need to be immersed in the current context as quickly as possible, so background exposition is not as necessary. Therefore it is better left as something which is implied rather than directly addressed in the dialogue. 

So although originally I wanted the classification of my film to be a 15 due to the maturity of its themes and exploration of two different approaches to grief as a result of lifestyles, I think that I am now going to downgrade this rating to a 12. I feel that 12 is a better choice because tonally the film becomes less threatening and more philosophical, evaluating the point of violence and the value of forgiveness. Therefore anyone under 12 is unlikely to understand this, hence why I am not reducing it to a 12A. The BBFC's statement about 12 films using Threat has been copied below:  

Threat

There may be moderate physical and psychological threat and horror sequences. Although some scenes may be disturbing, the overall tone should not be. Horror sequences should not be frequent or sustained.

I think that my film will conform to these guidelines, with some possible physical and psychological threats that aren't disturbing but more thought-provoking. I am hoping that the overall tone of my short film will be enjoyable rather than repulsive.  That being said I still want to encourage adolescent audiences rather than teenaged audiences because I feel as though this is the type of film that appeals to older viewers who are willing to reflect on the issues being addressed. My decision to adapt the certification comes from a reevaluation of the content rather than the audience, who I intend to keep the same as originally proposed. Younger audiences can still watch it, but I am less certain it will be viewed with as much appreciation. 

Revising the Screenplay

I am making this post in order to clearly demonstrate the changes to my narrative. I have rewritten parts of the screenplay in accordance with how much I think I will need to cut down or cut out completely.  

Revised Screenplay

The changes I have made are outlined below:

• Instead of using the same monologue for the voiceover, I decided to rewrite it in order to keep is more impersonal and less emotionally involved. This is because if it was actually Dylan speaking, then the words would've been both emotionally engaging as well as explanative, but using just audio instead of visuals removes some of the engagement that the viewer can connect with. 
• I have also removed the spoken interaction between the Father and the Son about the hearing. I feel as though this seems a little forced and just more of an excuse to expand on the backstory, and although I want to show them talking whilst they walk, I don't necessarily want it to be reflective of the current storyline. Therefore I decided that it would be better if the characters just spoke naturally and realistically about whatever comes to mind. 
• Without the scene with Dylan laying the flowers at the start, the audience will have to infer in the final scene that the first bouquet has been laid by him. I think that this could work quiet nicely in terms of ambiguity and subtext, allowing viewers to speculate for themselves. 

Changing My Narrative

After doing my first day's filming last weekend and editing the footage, I came to the sudden realisation that I had underestimated the running time of my short film. Narratively it was going to be much longer than I had anticipated, and so I concluded that I need to plan ahead before going out to do a second day's shooting. 

I recognised that I could either condense each scene in my narrative and shorten all of the shots to cram it into the five minutes, or I could do what professional filmmakers do and cut out some of the scenes. Unfortunately I thought that narratively each scene was very important and contributed to the overall arc of the characters. However the change that I thought I could make was to completely cut out the flashback to Dylan at the roadside, and convert his monologue into a voiceover to play over the scenes in the car park. This way the same message and explanation of the backstory was conveyed, except in the form of an internal voice rather than just a vocal outburst. 

Even though it felt like I was having to sacrifice quite an emotionally engaging sequence, this was my first taste of adapting to the circumstances and obstacles of professional shooting. It may also allow the pace to develop at a much quicker intensity in the build up to the confrontation, so I'm hoping this compromise will be an advantage rather than a disadvantage.