Character Photos

Laura (left) and Louise (right) = the two babysitters

Hermione = the "child" they babysit

Jackie and Michael = Hermione's parents

These are the outfits Laura and Louise will wear for the film.  I think Laura will wear a black jumper though as it will look better in the first scene where it will be dark.  Hermione will wear black, typical goth clothes and make-up.  Jackie will wear a black dress and coat and Michael will wear a black suit and tie.

Digging Location

I am going to do the digging scene at the sand dunes in St Ouen because it will be easier to dig sand than mud.  Although it wouldn't be realistic to bury a body in sand, it will be quite dark when we film it so hopefully you won't be able to tell.

Laura will sit on the dark grassy part on the left of the photo above

UPDATE: Laura's parents have kindly said that I can use their garden for the digging scene.  It will be a lot better for the equipment as if it rains, we can go inside whereas at the sand dunes, we would have had a lot further to go.

In the introduction, Louise will sit in the hole and dig as Laura sits in a chair to the left of her.

Practice

I practiced some filming techniques and transitions then edited them on iMovie.

I experimented with sound effects and music and I really like the effects I created.

Other things I included are:

• Pan
• Whip pan (where Alice throws the pencil then it cuts to Louise picking it up)
• Crash zoom: The school camera can only do slow zoom and not crash zoom which I really want for my film so I zoomed in slowly on Louise's face then when I was editing I cut the clip in two: the first part was the zoom so I wanted to speed it up then the second part was where the zooming was finished and it was just a close up of Louise's face. The final product is pretty good but it could have been faster although the original zoom was very slow so in my final film I will zoom in quicker.
• Some of the pans I did seemed a bit slow so I sped them up on iMovie (like I did with my "crash zoom"). I will probably take off the sped-up sound in my final film but I quite like it here.
• I like scenes in films where the beginning of a shot has a loud, sudden sound so I filmed Alice opening a door and walking in the room. The first sound is the slam of her hands on the door, pushing it open.
• I filmed a phone and zoomed in on it really slowly then put in a sound effect of a phone ringing. I didn't have enough still footage of the phone at the beginning before I started to zoom in so I slowed what I had down a bit in the same way I sped up the clips earlier. At the end of the clip I moved the camera swiftly right because I was going to follow with the next clip coming from the right in a whip pan but I forgot. When I am doing my actual film I will plan very carefully so that I don't make mistakes like this. In the next clip where Louise puts down the phone but lifts it up for a second accidentally, I put in a very short audio clip of the phone ringing. This is something Edgar Wright sometimes does in his films (eg. in Hot Fuzz where Simon Skinner looks right at the camera accidentally so when Wright came to edit the film, he put in the sound effect of a cash register which is very funny).
• Three shot zoom: I whip panned from the left far away then a bit closer then a bit closer. Then I put them all together.
• I'm not sure what I was doing with the plant thing. I just thought it was funny.

Tzvetan Todorov

Tzvetan Todorov’s theory is quite interesting as almost every film I have seen sticks to it and I'm sure some of the people who made the films were unaware that it even exists because I certainly hadn't heard of it before now yet in every story I can remember ever writing has stuck to this simple pattern.

Todorov's theory is that a narrative has five parts. The story always starts and ends in a state of equilibrium but, unlike in something like The Simpsons, the final equilibrium is usually different to the beginning one.

The five stages:

1. A state of equilibrium
2. A disruption of that order by an event
3. A recognition that the disorder has occurred
4. An attempt to repair the damage of the disruption
5. A return or restoration of a NEW equilibrium

Location Photos

I went to Louise's house yesterday and took some photos of her living room, kitchen and hall because this is where I will be filming most of my introduction.

The main annoying thing is I don't think I will be able to fit the camera behind her TV because it is quite big and flat and there are a lot of wires etc. which would make it very hard to move. I could possibly hide the TV behind something and have a different TV in front which I could film behind. Louise has a TV that she said I could use that's only in the next room so we could easily shift it. Or I could add the TV in on the computer like I will be doing with my "wipe" transitions. I watched my Spaced clip again and I think that they probably did it on the computer anyway - I just need to work out the angle to make it believable.

Dolly/ Tracking Shot

On http://www.bbc.co.uk/blast/film I came accross this rather exciting revelation. When I saw and read about dolly/ tracking shots before I thought I wouldn't be able to do them because I don't have the equipment but this article explains how to do it without a budget. I think I could use this kind of shot when Laura comes back from getting the shovel, filming her back from her head to her waist as she walks into the kitchen then maybe the shot can continue and zoom on Louise's wee guilty face.

Zero budget tracking shot

How can I get the effect of a tracking shot while shooting on video, without all the kit and on zero budget?

When done well, tracking shots are great and can add a real sense of movement to your video. Of course, you don't have to spend lots of money on high-end tracks and dollies to get that smooth movement.
Some solutions that are actually regularly used by professional video and film-makers involve attaching their camera to some device such as a shopping trolley, a bike, and wheelchair, a car... In fact, almost anything with wheels!
It's important that they have rubber wheels as this is more absorbent of any minor bumps you go over. Often you won't see these in your viewfinder but on a television screen they become very noticeable. Also, the advantage of working with these 'ordinary' devices is that they are easy to get into small areas, imagine trying to do that with lots of professional tracks?
The only thing you may have to borrow or worse case scenario purchase is something that will firmly attach your camera to the trolley or bike. They're not too expensive and they will be important when trying to ensure that your camera is very securely attached to the moving device.

Wright Practise

I decided to have a go at the Edgar Wright techniques using the video camera on my phone because I didn't have access to a proper camera today as I have been at home ill. Hopefully I can use the school camera tomorrow and film some stuff using people and maybe do a little scene in which all the techniques are used. In my three phone videos I am alone in my room so the stuff I am filming is pretty boring and I moved a big black button in front of the camera for my wipe because I'm still not really sure how they are done and it seems to look okay. I'm pretty sure that wipes are done using effects on a computer after it's all been filmed and I've spent ages trawling the web for anyone who knows how the hell to do it but it seems nobody does. All the definitions I've found are describing something different - a really cheap-looking shape transition (circle, star, heart etc) which I will NOT be using in my film.

But here are my first attempts anyway...

THE WIPE

THE 3 SHOT ZOOM

Yes this is a rather attractive picture of Seth Rogen. It makes me laugh and freaks me out probably in equal quantities.

THE WHIP PAN

For my whip pan I decided to "add some interest" with my hand in the shot but it clearly looks very lame. Please forgive me. For the two "scenes" I differentiated between the two by having different lights on in each shot to make it look like two different locations.