Preliminary task - the filming process:

On wednesday the 6th of October, Harry and I filmed our preliminary task. We had one lesson to capture the footage, and we achieved this aim with a good amount of time to spare at the end of the lesson. 


Before the lesson, Harry and I had to make a number of arrangements regarding our task.We planned our location, costume/props and actors prior to the lesson, which left us with 100 minutes in the lesson to focus solely on our footage. Harry and I discussed our plans together, and after some minor disagreements, we came to a final decision for our location - Ed's Place. 

• We chose Ed's Place, as it is a casual, everyday setting, which supports our story-line very well. Our plot consists of two characters taking part in a slightly dodgy financial scenario, in which one character gives fake money (monopoly money) to the other character. The set-up of the situation is made to look very subtle, and relaxed; therefore, using a location which is very normal helps to reflect our aim. 

Imy Harvey



Zander Fletcher

• Harry and I also agreed on the two actors we would use - Zander and Imy. Originally, we wanted two male actors; however, after a small discussion regarding our characters, we both agreed that having a female as the dominant character would add a bit of variety to our production, rather than having the typical male lead role, which may seem sexist to a large majority of people. Also, (as I mentioned in my last post) the music we chose to use sounds very mysterious, and slightly seductive; therefore, having a female as the dominant role adds to this level of mystery and seductiveness.
• When it came to our costume and props, this was something that Harry and I had to discuss in a lot of depth. In fact, I think we may have discussed this more than any of the other areas. We had to think very carefully about what we would need, and how our costume choices would affect the overall reception of the video by our audience. We decided to have our character's dressed all in black, in order to link to the mysterious look that we are trying to achieve. Black is a colour that doesn't automatically get paired with a certain mood (for example, red represents anger, or love), so this also helped us hugely, as the audience won't associate the characters with a particular mood. We only needed two props throughout the whole filming process (monopoly money and a bag to place the money in), but these things were very easy to obtain.

(Notice the figure to the right)

Overall, Harry and I didn't find any major difficulties whilst filming. Obviously, there were a few minor ones, but these problems were sorted very quickly. One problem which we did find it hard to solve was the fact that people kept walking through our shots, or near the camera whilst we were filming, therefore causing a lot of noise. There was nothing we could do really, so we just had to patiently wait, and then film as quickly as we could when there was a moments silence. This  only happened on a few occasions, and it didn't affect any of our footage too much, so this problem was resolved. Although we managed to solve our first minor hitch, there was a recurring problem that we found hard to fix - the fact that music is constantly playing in Ed's place. At first, we thought that this would be fine, as we planned to simply asked the Ed's place staff to turn it off for a short period of time; however, they then told us that Mr Barton is in charge of the music, therefore they could not turn it down for us. Admittedly, we did panic for a minute or two, but we decided to just power on through, and adjust the sound levels on the computer. 

Despite these issues, the filming process was a successful one! We managed to capture everything we needed in the time limit, and overall, everything went pretty much to plan. Hopefully when we begin editing our footage, we find that the sound problem in Ed's place actually wasn't that much of a big deal; however, if we do struggle to fix things, I'm sure Harry and I can find a solution in our free time.

For future reference - DOs and DON'T

• DO organise everything you need prior to filming (i.e. location, actors, props/costume etc.)
• DO tell the actors what they must do before filming, as communication is a very important part of the filming process.
• DO be prepared to improvise. If a shot needs changing, don't panic - just adjust what you need to adjust, and reflect back on this when it comes time to analyse your final production.
• DO give yourself enough time at the end to solve anything that may have gone wrong (for example, if voice overs are needed using a microphone, or if certain shots need filmed again)
• DON'T dismiss the storyboard! Story-boards are crucial when capturing large amounts of footage, so keep this close to you, and look back at it after every frame has been shot.
• DON'T leave anything until the last minute. Organise props, costume etc. before the filming, as this prevents anyone rushing around.