Re-shoots and alterations to Great Day Today

This post details the changes made to my film opening that differ from the original storyboard and script. These changes have been made for multiple reasons such as: the capability to film shots, the message created by the shot and the way in which the original shot did not fit into the narrative that was originally intended.

A1- Changed to audio sourced off of Youtube.
A2 to A12- Changed to just one line of dialogue from the caller and then a hang up dial tone.

B1- Change from wide shot to a closer medium shot.
B4- Change to a black screen with the sound of getting into the car to create the need for inference by the audience.
C1- Change to a low angle shot looking up at the house as the car arrives and obscures the camera
C2- Change to a shot of a newspaper
C3- Change to man reading newspaper
C4- Change to exterior shot of doorway where the man has his gun drawn and is turning corner
C5- Change to interior shot of man lowering gun
C6- Change to POV of officer lowering his body and reaching his hand out.
C7- Change to little girl standing on stick
C8- Change to man turning around and shooting gun
C9- Change to cut to black
C10- Removed from this scene
C11- Removed from this scene

DI1- Change to man approaching camera with his gun drawn.
DI2- Dead girl laying on the ground.
DI3- Kept wide shot of door but not of it closing
DI4- Change to a close up of the door
DI6- Removed

DS3- Changed where man does not sit back in his seat but just has his hand on his face
DS6- Split between two shots of the cigarette
DS15- Changed to a tighter shot of the wife being punched and then added an extra shot of the wife falling down.
DS16- "he's sound" lyrics were changed to a hand around the woman's neck, Then, the rest of the lyrics show the man punching towards the screen.
DS17- Changed to hand dropping on ground and blood platter and blood dropping in water.
DS18- Draw opened and gun taken out.
DS19- Split between original shot of camera behind man and then a shot from infront of the gun in the man's hand.

Filming report dated 17th December 2015

Below is the schedule that I used to film on the 17th December 2015

During this final filming period, there were two parts of filming that had to be done. The first was the blood splatter after the punch and the other was audio for the 911 call where the dialogue and structure of the 911 call was changed.

DS17

This shot was based mainly on experiments to get the perfect shot. I setup a white background and positioned the glass of water in front of it. Using red food colouring, I dropped one drop into the glass. The after affect created by this was extremely effective and looked perfect. I then experimented with a syringe and received similar effects on my second and third takes. On my fourth take, I decided to instead use a larger quantity of food coloring in the glass and received unexpected results. The immediate effect was far better than the previous takes but with worse after affects as the colouring rose instead of fall like the previous takes. I decided to use this take as I needed a short take that didn't matter after the rest of the shot as i would cut to another shot. This shot is the only shot that is a symbolic and 'non-existent' shot that uses a metaphor instead of a literal meaning.






A1-A12 (Scene A)

A1
These lines of dialogue (and overall scene) proved to be very difficult to achieve. The main issue being that my actress was unable to make the 911 operator seem realistic enough. This was because of a lack of training on how to restrain themselves to raise the pitch of their voice in A1 as it is natural to do so when asking a question. Because the actress was doing this, it made the line seem unrealistic and unprofessional for a 911 operator to speak in this way. This problem resulted in me swapping roles with the actress to act as a 911 operator. However, I was also unable to make my voice seem realistic for a 911 operator. After many bloopers, I decided that the dialogue for the 911 operator was not possible to achieve based on my available resources. I started to instead attempt to source a recording using secondary sources off YouTube of real 911 operator recordings.  Still, I struggled to find any usable audio until I found some raw generic radio chatter audio on Youtube that I had to sort through and find the audio that I wanted. I  converted this audio into an mp3 file and then edited it into the film opening.

For the next line of dialogue, I needed audio from the caller who is in peril. As stated above, I had a large collection of bloopers made by trying to record the last line of dialogue. I decided to try to record the audio using the same actress again but as the caller. I again had difficulties getting the correct take that I wanted and tried varying accents with the actress to extreme stereotypes like strong Southern American and Scottish. This created some unique takes that were more comedic than usable in my opening. However, after recording a few Scottish takes; the actress almost accidentally produced the exact take that I wanted with the perfect audio that fitted the tone that I wanted for the opening. This take was produced out of the blue and using extreme accents seemed to have helped the actress to produce the take that I wanted. My response of shock can be heard at the end of the above video of the audio from the bloopers.
I decided to instead just use these two lines of dialogue and then a hang up dial tone for the film opening as I preferred the tone that it created for the opening and it matched what was achievable.

Filming report dated 9th December 2015

Below is the schedule that I used to film on 9th December 2015

DS6+ cigarette on newspaper

For this shot, I used a fake cigarette and used matches to burn the end and create the illusion of this prop being a real cigarette being smoked. Instead of planning how each take would precisely look, I just filmed a large quantity of raw footage holding the cigarette in different positions and then choose which part I preferred. I had issues with the cigarette itself as the instructions on the packet specifically said to not burn the cigarettes. This warning proved to be reliable as I realised after setting the cigarette alight, that the cigarette was filled with some form of cotton wool. The outer part of the cigarette was made up of card which burnt much slower than the interior cotton wool. Smoke can be seen leaving the other end of the cigarette in some of the raw footage which meant that I had to hide the back end of the cigarette out of the shot.

Filming report dated 8th December 2015

Below is the schedule that I used to film on the 8th December 2015

DS4 

I found that this shot was quite easy to shoot. However, there was a struggle to place the cigarette in the mouth properly on the first two takes but then did this successfully on the third take.

DS16 

This shot was very problematic as it was difficult to gauge where the actor should place his foot when kicking and also for how long to hold his foot over the camera after kicking. The actor also struggled with keeping stable with kicking and having enough room to extend his leg in a way that made his kick look realistic enough.

DS15 Punching body against door+ punching fist shot

For this shot, I positioned myself against a door and had the actor simulate punching me in the side. As you cannot see my face, the present character is actually the officer's wife. The actor recommended punching towards my right side so that it looked more realistic as no contact can be seen being made between the fist and body.

For the punching shot, the actor punched across the screen which gave an almost streamlined feeling to his actions and only took one take.

DS19 

For this shot, I aimed the camera behind the actor so that his gun could be seen as it is drawn. The light from in front could be seen in between the actor's left arm which I was happy about. I tried a second take where the light could be seen in between both arms but I felt that this was not as good as the first take.

Filming report dated 6th December 2015

Below is the schedule that I used to film on the 6th December 2015

Below is the raw footage acquired from filming.

DS9

I found that this shot was quite difficult to film as I had to find a substitute for cocaine to film with. After looking online for different alternatives, I came across a website with the recommendation of baking powder. I ended up using baking powder after doing this research and trialling with flour as its consistency lacked the realistic consistency of cocaine based on its heavy density as well as other factors. I filmed three takes of this shot and used a vacuum cleaner to simulate the cocaine being snorted. Acting as a buffer, I used a dollar bill that was rolled up to hide the fact that a vacuum was used. Because the audio over the shot is music, it does not matter that a loud machine can be heard over the raw footage.

DS18

This shot was a change from the original shot as the original looked unrealistic and set up in a way that did not seem authentic. I filmed a shot of the draw being closed (to be put in the intro of the song) and a shot to replace shot DS18 of the draw being opened and the gun being taken out. The only issue that I found was that my shadow could be seen over the wood in some of the takes but finally was happy with the the that I chose to use for the final project as the shadow does not distract from the message that I wanted to create in this shot.

Filming report dated 25th November 2015

Below is the schedule that I used to film of 25th November 2015.

Below is my introduction clarifying details.

For this shoot, I filmed a large quantity of my shots that were a spread between Scenes B,C and D. However, most of these shots were in Scene B where the officer is outside the building and ends up shooting the little girl. I still have more shots to cover but feel that after editing these shots together, I will have a clearer perspective of how much time I have currently filled of my two minute limit. Depending on this length, I will be able to gague if Scene A will fit within this limit and if the scene is necessary or requires to be shortened. At this time, I feel that Scene A will most likely require some shortening.

At this point, I have filmed 21 shots which works out to just under half of all my required shots. Seeing that I have two more weeks to film (and have taken about the same time to film this half), I feel confident that I will be able to finish my shoot on time.

I have not uploaded the raw footage for each shot and instead am using this post to address the existence of the shots that were not detailed or addressed in other filming reports.

Filming report dated 24th November 2015

Below is the schedule that I used to film of 24th November 2015

Below is the raw footage acquired from filming.

B5

I found that shot B5 was quite easy to achieve apart from finding an appropriate angle to shoot at and keeping the keys in the center of the frame. At first, I was concerned that the shot would be too long but found that it fit into the opening perfectly.

B6

I found that shot B6 had issues with being able to see the reflection of the camera in the dial screen. I had to manoeuvre the camera to an angle that stopped this reflection from being visible. I also had to make a decision of to change the shot from a speedometer to the on screen lights as they not only provided better lighting, but also stood out more in the shot. I then had to choose which of the lights on the dashboard that I should use and which lights fitted into the frame best.

B7

I found that shot B7 was not as possible as I planned. I found that setting up a camera at the back of the car caused an issue with lighting and that a darker shot was required. I ended up using the interior light of the car door that turned off when the door was shut. With the shot, I had problems with the light not turning off when I shut the door as I had not closed it properly and also framing issues. Finally, I was able to solve these problems by opening the door further which ensured that the light shut off and that I had time to re-position the camera.

B8

I found that shot B8 did not match my envisioned shot as the radio did not have a dial to turn to increase the volume. I tried to create the illusion that I was turning a dial but found that this did not look realistic enough. I ended up choosing to just press on the volume buttons to get the shot. 

Filming report dated on 22nd November 2015

Below is the schedule that I used to film of 22th November 2015.

Below is the raw footage acquired from filming.

DS5

I found that shot DS5 was somewhat difficult to shoot as I had trouble sourcing a zippo lighter and instead had to revert to a cheaper red lighter instead of the more expensive and branded zippo lighter with a lid. I had never used a zippo lighter before and firstly struggled with getting a flame to appear without moving outside of the shot. I took 3 takes and chose to use the above take which is the second take.

At this point, I have completed 5 shots and have begun to place the shots in the corresponding order on a project using the program Pinnacle.

Filming report dated 11th November 2015

Below is the schedule that I used to film of 11th November 2015.

Below is the raw footage acquired from filming and my report on each one as well as an introduction clarifying details.

I shot in the order of: DS18,DS8,DS11. This was because I shot the first two shots on a bench and so did not have to change the setup until the third shot. For all the shots, I used my hand and not the hand of the character that would be doing it. This may create slight continuity problems so I may have to consider reshoots if my arm looks drastically different to the actor's arms in the other shots. I used a strong lamp light behind the camera to brighten up the shot. I tried using a more direct torch but found that it was too powerful and caused a glare in the shot.

DS18

I found that shot DS18 was at first difficult to setup to get the gun and the badge to stay upright but not fall on each other as I had to pick the gun up without the badge falling over. I shot 2 takes to be assured that I had the shots that I wanted and found that I was eventually able to support the 2 props up against the bench without falling over throughout the shot. I did a trial of the shot beforehand to ensure that it would work before I started filming.

DS8

I found that shot DS8 looked odd in the viewfinder on the camera as the ridges of the circle were 'popping' whilst filming. After looking at the footage, I found that this problem was not visible.

DS11

I found that DS18 was very easy and the only problem was that the piece of paper did not look like a booklet being pushed forward. To combat this, I added a sketch book below the piece of paper which made it more convincing. I had the angle the camera downwards on the tripod and was concerned that the angle was too extreme but instead am comfortable with how the shot turned out.