I pitched my idea to my tutors. The feedback I got back was good and helpful. An issue I was attempting to solve was the location and the look I had in mind was a narrow hall with multiple doors at either side. Both tutors gave me great ideas of where I can consider and the one that appeals most to me is The Sporting lodge. One issue is the door. I want the doors to have little windows so the main character can look into them and see the glimpses of his past memories. They said that they could visualise my idea more so than the others they had heard that day and could tell that I had rehearsed my pitched.
Wednesday 19th March
I bought a folder for my production file and have already placed in a printout of my pitch, proposal, alternate ideas and the first draft of my script. I also started on my shot list and managed to get them finished by the end of the day.
Thursday 20th March
I began on my Storyboards however I could not get too far with them because I am also working on the working to a brief assignment and needed to help out with that.
Monday 24th March
I continued with my storyboards but a similar problem occurred with me not being able to finish them due to my alternate assignment.
Wednesday 26th March
I finished the storyboards and got to work on my character breakdowns. I was not so sure how to set it out and did some research on the matter. I found a great website with step by step explanations on what to do which has helped out a lot. http://thisisyourpilotspeaking.wordpress.com/2010/06/23/character-breakdown-i/
Monday 31st March
My character breakdowns are complete and I have contacted the two people who I want most to act in my film. They are Natasha Bell and Jack Harrison. I also contacted the Sporting lodge in Middlesbrough requesting if we could meet and discuss the possibility of filming there for my main location. Now I will be beginning my work on my costume and makeup design.
Thursday 3rd April
I now have the actors CV's to place in my production file and have started a facebook page for the film. I am however having trouble finding a location to shoot at. I have asked at Tuned In, The ARC and The Sporting Lodge, unfortunately thy each said to me that their halls are always in use 24/7 and I cannot film there. I have come to two possibilities as to what I can to resolve this. I can either use the college halls or change the script so instead of a hallway we use a house. I will keep searching for locations up until the 10th, and if I don't find one then I will choose one of these two options.
Monday 7th April
Today I spent about 3 or 4 hours in Stockton Middlesbrough and Redcar searching for a location to use for this project. I have been unsuccessful in doing so and am beginning to doubt that I will be able to find an area where I will be granted permission to film. So I have thought up a few alternatives. I said previously that if I do not have a location by the 10th then I will resort to using the college halls or change the script so it takes place in a house. Other possible solutions I have thought up however is to contact the Sporting Lodge again with a similar request. Only it will just be me going with my V-720 camera and I will spend about 10 minutes filming in various areas in a corrydoor and taking photos so I can get my actors in and green screen the whole film in the best location I was able to find. Another possibility I have thought up is to change the script so it takes place in an are surrounded by trees. This idea works because it is vague. With it taking place in a hallway it suggests that there is an area he remembers, if it were a place outside surrounded by trees then it suggests he doesn't even remember civilisation. There is an area by my house that is almost perfect for this kind of setting only problem is every 10-20 minutes a train go past very close to there, but is easy to work around.
Thursday 10th April
It is the 10th of April now and as I said today I will make a decsion as to what I will do about loation. In this last week I have gone out to Stockton, Middlesbrough, and Preston to search for location for my film. I have asked at Tuned in, The Sporting lodge, Various other Hotels whose names I cannot recall at this point in time, office buildings, and other areas I once again cannot recall what they were called. I would estimate that I have called, Emailed and personally visited up to 15 - 20 possible places for location for my film this week and I always seem to get the same response. Either their halls are used all hours of the day or they just don't want us filming there altogether. I gave myself the goal for making a decision for today but unfortunately I still have a decision to make that I cannot make until tomorrow. I can either use the College corridors, a home or an area by my house surounded by trees. I believe it would be best if done in the area with trees as it detaches his mind from memories of society which is known to be a side effect of some types of amnesia. However I wish the film to look dark and whith the time of year it doesn't get dark until around 8:30pm or 9pm. Which would be too late to film for the actors as there would be no trains back to Middlesbrough or Stockton after this time and filming could go on for up to 3 hours which would lead to midnight. So tomorrow I am taking my camera down there and will film a 1 minute long sequesnce, edit the image to see if I can make it look like night, and if the end result is good then I will chose this as my main location for the film.
Friday 11th April
At 7:00pm I left the house with my camera and tripod to the wooded area which I have mentioned would be a good location for the film. I left at this time because ina rough schedule plan I wrote our yesterday I placed the time of filming to be start at this time. I filmed a 45 second sequence and editited it in Adobe After Effects to make it look like night. The result is not what I was hoping however I know it can be improved upon. The computer I use to edit at home is incredibally terrible when running Adobe. For example it took it 30 minutes to play out the whole 45 second sequence. With this issue it was very difficult to change the look of the footage, however I was able to create a rough version of what I want and all it needs is a little clean up my laptop cannot provide. I am fully confident that when I get this footage to a fully working computer at college it will be easy to fix the problems that are seen in the photo below.
Before
Monday 21st April
My actor Jack Harrison got into contact with me tell me the cannot come in on the 22nd at the time we agreed on. Something important had come up so I was forced to change the schedule for the 22nd and he now be coming in at 2:30pm instead of 11am as we had first agreed.
Tuesday 22nd April
Voiceovers are now recorded and edited. All that is left production wise is to film.
Wednesday 23rd April
We were lucky today in finding out that the actors finished several hours early so we were able to go and film at 3:30 which meant we arrived at location at 4:30. Filming itself did not go smoothly. The backstage camera ran out of battery and the footage we got with it was little to none. There were some communication issues with everyone so setting up different shots proved to be a battle the later it got. We ran over filmtime by a few hours because of this. I aimed to be finished within 2 hours by the end of it all we came out with a 5 hour shoot and still did not have everything we needed.
Thursday 24th April
I have captured and edited the footage we had. Overall we need to reshoot 5 shots and film the 8 shots we could not get yesterday.
Sunday 27th April
I got Jack to come down to Redcar and we were able to film all of the shots we needed including reshoots.
Wednesday 30th April
The rough edit is now complete and I am starting work on the behind the scenes videos.
Wednesday 4th June
Everything regarding the film is now complete. The edits are finished and the menu is almost complete. All that is left is to add in the Directors commentary and I will be able to burn it into the disk.
