Diary

Group: Grace Lester and Sarah-Louise Horne


Short Film Title: Lost


Tuesday 13th October 2009

This was the first lesson on the coursework part of our Media A level, therefore Zoe asked us to get in groups to work with for the duration of the course, Sarah-Louise and I choose to work together as we are good friends and feel working in as a pair would benefit us seeing as the work load would be easy to share and we are able to contact each other easily. We then when on t talk and discuss the in and outs of what was needed to be complete to get a good grade in our coursework.

Thursday 15th October 2009

In today’s lesson we watched many shorts films to help everyone establish the criteria of a short film and how filmmakers create them to have meaning in only a short amount of time. Whilst watching them we make notes and analysed the lighting, camera angles etc in each short film, therefore adding to our research and knowledge for the coursework. We were then told for homework we must each create a short story to make one into a short film and come back on Tuesday with our idea.

Tuesday 20th October 2009

Today, Sarah and I shared our story ideas for a plot line. After discussing our ideas we came to the conclusion that we liked the idea of hand-held cameras, so we decided to go with Sarah’s idea which was called ‘Lost’ instead of my short story ‘Alone’.

‘Lost’ is about 2 friends going on a camping trip in the woods, then one girl goes missing the other is left alone and in confusion, ‘Lost’ has a good twist where one of the girls has a split personality and therefore is the killer of her friend, you do not find this out easier as we want the audience to really think about what is going on, instead of being really obvious.

‘Alone’ was about a girl that meets up with a boy that she has been talking to over the internet but when she gets there she realises that he is not the boy she first thought and he goes on to kidnap her and leaves her alone in a mysterious place.

Sarah’s idea was more realistic as locations and characters would be much easier and reliable to work with. Now we have decided on our film idea, in next lesson we are going to start to writing up our script.

Thursday 22nd October 2009

Today, we started to write our script following the basic idea of the story ‘Lost’ together, we did this for the whole lesson and will continue on doing this in Friday and will be looking over the script and adjusting it as the development of filming goes on, therefore prepared for writing up our shooting script.

Friday 23rd October 2009

Today we carried on with writing up our scripts on the computer and whilst Sarah was typing it up I began with planning the shooting script and what camera angles and such we were going to use. This was hard to think of seeing as we are using a handheld camera therefore the angles for most of the film are going to be spontaneous on how and when we decide to film. Seeing as our short film is supposed to look and feel as realistic as possible! Therefore we will try our hardest to create a shooting script which is as close as possible to the real thing.

Tuesday 27th October 2009

In today’s lesson seeing as the script had been completed over the weekend we started on the shooting script in order to finish it as soon as possible, also during this lesson we got our hands on the handheld camera that we are going to be using for the duration of our filming, to just check out how and to use in preparation for the next few weeks.

Friday 30th October 2009

Seeing as we had both the completed script and shooting script we checked through them again just to make sure everything was correct and what we wanted it to be like, after this we started to plan out where and what locations we were going to film in. We plan to take full advantage of being around Henley-On-Thames and use the roads around our college to film our driving scenes. We also plan to use the front of Sarah’s house for our opening scene and woods around Caversham to film the main camping scenes.

Tuesday 3rd November 2009

Today, we are going on our location lookout, we already had a good idea of where we were going to film, but thought it was very important to actually go out and investigate the areas before just turning up to film. So I drove me and Sarah around Henley and on the way back to her house we checked out the woods which Sarah had suggested. The first set of woods wasn’t what we expected as it wasn’t hidden from the main road enough and also there was a scout hunt which would have been hard to hide whilst filming was taking place, however the second set of woods was perfect for what we wanted to achieve in our film. The wood dipped in the middle therefore creating a well hidden area from the roads and houses surrounding it, it also had clear spaces where we could pretend to be putting our tent up, also there was woody trails to walk down to film, which was also perfect for our short film.

Whilst doing the location lookout we took the handheld camera just to have a play around with it before starting filming.

Thursday 5th November 2009

Now that we are confident with our locations , the script and the shooting script it was time for me to start storyboarding the script and trying to plan the whole plan for the filming step by step. So during this lesson I started to working on the story boarding finding the correct way of portraying the pictures and how to explain them from Zoe and I will continue to complete the story boards tonight and over the weekend. Whilst I was doing this Sarah started researching over films on ‘YouTube’ and making notes on what she thought would help to make our short film more successful.

Friday 6th November 2009

Today, Sarah and I sat down and talked about finishing writing up and drawing our storyboards before we starting on filming. It took us a while to draw out the images, for example: part of our film we had a close up of Grace’s shoes and the drawings have to show this clearly as does the explanation, therefore some of the pictures had to be drawn again. I said then I would take them home and finish them, as today was the first day of filming, we decided on filming the car scene, where we are driving to the woods, we have decided to take and use advantage of all the little lanes and little woodland avenues in and around Henley to achieve this. We thought the first day of filming went quite well, but we do need to work on acting more realistic and flowing the conversation whilst filming.

Tuesday 10th November 2009

In today’s lesson we decided it was a good day to go out filming again. This time we did our petrol station scene in Henley, the station was very busy so we only could do one take as well and also I had to actually get petrol and pay for it so we were working on a time limit, this was tricky and had to be flawlessly to make it look good as it is a vital part in our short film. However we were very happy with our efforts that day.

Thursday 12th November 2009

This lesson we decided to look back on our story boards and to make sure that everything was clear and fresh in our minds so when we film next lesson we are total sure on what we want to achieve. Sarah and I thinks it would be a good idea to redo some of the driving scene from the first day of filming seeing as we are now more confident on acting in front of each other making the film better seeing as it will be more realistic.

Friday 13th November 2009

Today we are redoing the driving scene for they were up to the standard we wanted the first time round, therefore we spent the whole lesson driving around in Henley doing take after take for the driving and creating new ways of emoting the lines we had in the script to make us as actors seem more natural. We thought this would be a good idea seeing as when it comes down to editing we would have a lot more choice in what to put in our final edit.

Tuesday 17th November 2009

Today we did not have a day of filming and instead worked on our AS coursework which we have to re-submit in January and focus on that. We then discussed what to do on Thursday’s lesson, which would be the filming of the opening sequence outside Sarah’s house, therefore after this; we can focus on the main part of our short film which is being at the woods and onwards from there.

Thursday 18th November 2009

Today was all about planning the rest of the filming until we had finished for good to start editing. We planned out the days in which both of us were free to film and where and what we were going to film on these days, therefore making life easier to manage and our time to complete the rest of our coursework.

Friday 20th November 2009

Today we when to Sarah’s driveway to film the opening sequence, pretending we were packing the car up for camping, I was filming and tried my hardest to stick with the shooting script. It all when very well and we did lots of takes which will be great for editing, we used my car as a prop and the acting really flowed so overall very successful.

Tuesday 24th November 2009

In today’s lesson we looked back at the filming we did for the beginning of the short film, seeing if all the crucial scenes and elements need to create the film we desire are there. We then talked about whether we should do a magazine article and a poster or a radio interview. We both decided that we should do the magazine article and the poster. So we have more time, I will do the poster whereas Sarah will do the magazine article.

We both are going to try and complete the poster and review as soon as possible therefore creating more time for the rest of the coursework to be complete and for the editing to get done well and on time. By doing these different types of media it will help make our short film seem more real and professional.



Thursday 26th November 2009

Today’s lesson we were concentrating on the paper coursework as we need to focus in doing such things as the production log and getting into more research and the planning of the coursework so Sarah and I set off doing our own tasks for the duration of the lesson. We then watched back at the first take of the opening sequence and even though the filming wasn’t bad, we decided to do it ages seeing as are clothes and her make-up were a little different, these are the sort of things that we need to be careful with for the rest of the filming.

Friday 27th November 2009

We when back to Sarah’s house today fully prepared to redo the opening sequence, it when well as Sarah and I work well together and get the jobs we need doing without any problems.

Tuesday 1st December 2009

Today we stayed in the lesson for the whole lesson as it is very important to keep up with the paper coursework, so far we are very happy with our efforts on the project and haven’t experienced any problems getting filming and our individual jobs done. Next lesson we plan to continue working on the paper coursework once more, so that we have a free day of filming on the Friday.

Thursday 3rd December 2009

We looked at our blogs today and started to upload the work we had previously done. Sarah and I then carried on with the discussion of what else we had to complete, such as: the location lookout sheet and the questionnaire etc, these Sarah began in the lesson whilst I carried on with the production log.

Friday 4th December 2009

In this lesson we had decided that we were going to continue on with filming, we thought it would be good to try and stick to the order of the script as much as possible therefore creating an easier timeline when it comes to editing. So today we filmed scenes of us driving from the petrol station to the campsite which is in Caversham. All went well and we are very pleased with how much choice we have on the driving scenes and we believe that repetition of scene is very important on making a successful film as well as trying to act as natural as possible whilst filming.

Tuesday 8th December 2009

In today’s lesson Sarah and I planned out where would be the best place in the woods in Caversham to film, seeing as the night scene is a very important part of our film we didn’t want to mess it up at all by having lighting from street lights in the background as well as car and people noises, also seeing as Caversham is a very built up area of house we have to take in the positioning of the camera whilst filming this vital scene.

Thursday 10th December 2009

We had another lesson in the classroom today, as the weather wasn’t right for filming, seeing as it was raining and in the other filming we had been doing it was dry, therefore we didn’t want to ruin the continuity of our film but having changing weather which will be easily spotted by viewers, so today we worked on our blogs to keep up-to-date.

Friday 11th December 2009

In today’s lesson we carried on discussing the sound in our piece and now we are now very interested in having a song throughout the credits and for the opening sequence of the film, as we feel this will make it look more professional and of a higher quality, therefore we started looking in to what type of genre for each piece to have, we decided on the opening sequence having a more cheery and upbeat song compared to the credits having a more sombre feel.

Tuesday 15th December 2009

Today I was ill, resulting in Sarah not being able to film so she got on with doing her blog and getting through some more of the paper part of the coursework.

Thursday 17th December 2009

In this lesson we make our arrangements for the Christmas holidays, we made dates in which to film that we were both available for, we also planned on continuing with the other coursework and helping each other out via emailing and the phone.

*CHRISTMAS HOLIDAYS*

Tuesday 5th January 2010

Seeing as the weather was extremely snowy for this country over the Christmas holidays the dates we had planned could not happen as it was too dangerous for me to drive to Sarah’s house, also we had wouldn’t of been able to successfully film seeing as what we wanted to focus on was the wood scene and loads of snow would have been on the ground therefore ruining the want of our film being filmed all in one day. So today we have to re-think the next few weeks and get our heads around when and what we were going to film as soon as possible.

Thursday 7th January 2010

Today’s lesson was all planning the filming for Friday the 15th as this was the day we are going to be filming in the woods for the first time, resulting in everything needing to be prepared for it would get very cold and we didn’t want to be standing outside for too long. We decided to film all afternoon therefore taking advantage of the daylight and also the darkness to experiment with for our wood scenes.

Thursday 14th January 2010

As we had already planned the night shot on Friday, today we just had a quick recap then got back to working on our paper course, Sarah continued with the Poster and I continued with the production meetings.

Friday 15th January 2010

Today we continued with the coursework as this weekend we are going be filming the night scenes, we hope they turn out well seeing as they are so important to the film, therefore we have carefully planned out the weekend and what we want to achieve from the filming.

Tuesday 19th January 2010

In today’s lesson we looked back at the filming we had in the woods to check everything was what we wanted it to be and overall we were very happy with what we were seeing especially the in using the night mode, it made the film look really spooky and just the mood we wanted to achieve. We are very pleased with this part of the film and look forward to editing it.

Thursday 21st January 2010

Sarah and I watched all we had filmed back to day to check if we had to repeat or go over any part of the filming once more, however we decided we didn’t as we were happy with what we achieved. So Sarah started to upload the tape onto Windows Movie Maker, however this did not save properly so we decided to try again next lesson.

Friday 22nd January 2010

We tried again with uploading the video onto the computer however we were unsuccessful again as the film would not save and we couldn’t upload it onto another computer seeing as the USB that came with the camera didn’t fit into another, therefore this is a major setback in our process of editing the film.

Tuesday 26th January 2010

Today we tired yet again to upload it and experienced the same problems, so Sarah had to go and speak to the ICT men who eventually sorted it out and Sarah is now able to edit at college with me as well at home.

Thursday 28th January 2010

We began really getting into editing the film, by adding additional sounds such as the opening and credit music, we also thought of the idea of mixing the film up a bit to create confusion for the audience (through the idea of Sarah’s mixed personality) we thought we would try and portray through the short film what it felt like for her and how her up and down occur. So we began making the film very jumpy and using lots of straight cuts.

Friday 29th January 2010

For the rest of our time period before handing the completed coursework in Sarah and I are going to be editing the film everyday up until the deadline and working hard on the paper coursework, we have communicated well throughout the period of working together and this will continue until we are finished.