The Day Coombe Got Robbed

Hello fellow blogger brethren,

12C6 and the rest of Coombe's media students received the unfortunate news of finding out that someone committed the felony of robbery in school over the weekend and stole our finished opening sequence with it. They stole all of the macs and all of the cameras but left our headphones. Unfortunately we don't have any computers to plug them in to. This has left us all shocked and frustrated at the thought of having to re edit our whole opening sequence all over again but thankfully we found that our title sequence was saved on to the public school drive so we don't have to re edit that again. Hopefully my next blog post will show the progress we have made on re editing, in the mean time you can check out the behind the scenes footage we took.

Showcase Feedback

Yesterday we evaluated the current progress of our peers, and they evaluated our video so far. I found their feedback informative because we now know what we need to work on. Here is the feedback.

Our Behind the Scenes Video

We have finally finished our Behind the Scenes video!

Editing 07/02/13

In today's lesson we finished editing our behind the scenes footage. This helped me to experiment with Final Cut further, and we showed it to many people in the classroom who liked what we had done. The behind the scenes footage altogether is around 3 minutes long, we also took some photos in class which I included at the end. Overall, I think the video is humerus and vibrant, which is quite the opposite to the tension and suspense we have tried to create in our actual opening sequence, however we had fun filming our piece and editing it. 

Initial Planning: Shooting Schedule

In order to structure our filming day to make it most time efficient, we planned the order which we would take our shots. During our filming day we generally stuck to this, however after we adapted some scenes, and the end of the opening sequence had an alternative ending, the order some shots were taken in changed. During the day we filmed in the house first, and then in the car (due to 1) Nikolai being a little late and 2) It was quite cold outside!), which meant time was not being consumed unnecessarily. I have included the original shooting schedule here:

Initial Planning: Script and Synopsis

During the initial planning of our opening sequence it was recommended that we included minimal speaking during it. As there were only two characters, we only planned for there to be one sentence of dialogue which occurred at the end. However, as the opening sequence changed, on the day we decided there to be no speaking at all. Here I have included both photos of our planned script, and the synopsis.

Initial Planning: Risk Assessment

Whilst initially planning the filming, we conducted a risk assessment to ensure that we understood some of the risks which may take place whilst shooting. Here is the risks we listed that may occur:

1)	Be careful to not burn our hands whilst using the cameras as they may get hot quickly.
2)	Do not drop the camera.
3)	Do not eat or drink near any of the equipment.
4)	Be careful to not trip up over the wires.

Photos of Filming Day

The Rock Assessment

NAMES: Laura and Rianna     Date: 19th October
1.	The first shot is a mid shot, however in the background of the shot there is some action which makes the audience feel as if they are part of the action, as they are close to the action. This also allows the audience to see the character’s facial expressions.
2.	The camera is faced at a low angle shot, this gives the main character more power then the audience and gives the impression he is quite intimidating, due to the fact he is holding a gun. The camera is right in the action, almost attached to the person. This gives the impression that this character is very important because the camera is following him.
3.	The camera is positioned low down, this allows the audience to not only view the action of the men, it allows audience to recognise the Ferrari and indicates the car would be important in later scenes. The low angle shows how fast the car is when he drives off, this shows there is going to be a fast chase.
4.	The low angle whilst in the car gives Nicholas Cage authority as well as allowing the audience to see the frantic and anxious expression on his face. The camera then abruptly cuts to another car and person and the camera movements are extremely wobbly, almost handheld. This allows the audience to get extremely close to the action and intensity of the race. This is an overhead shot, which establishes the scene where the car is driving through. It then cuts back to the handheld style to get the audience back into the action again. This is further emphasised by the camera being attached to the car. Almost to give the audience a feel of what it is like to be in the car. The camera cuts and has a full on shot of the car that has recently smashed the shop: this is to surprise the audience to see that the car is still at the same speed. The camera returns to the handheld style in the car to make the audience feel as frantic as the driver. The next shot is a high angle shot, allowing the audience to be shocked by next crash into the taxi, before again returning to the shaky camera movement to engage the audience in the emotions of the driver.
5.	The camera is at a mid angle to show the audience just how fast the car is moving. The camera then does a very fast pan following the police car that crashes into the taxi. This also shows the speed the car is moving at.
6.	The camera is in the car giving the impression it is like a point of view shot. The camera is shaking as if it is handheld. The camera then cuts to an extreme close up of the driver in the car, this allows the audience to see the expressions on his face.
7.	The camera is at a low angle, which allows the audience to see the speed of the cars. It then cuts to an extreme close up of one of the characters and we see the anxious look on his face. The camera then is directly in front of the cars, which shows the audience the direct action. It then cuts back to the man in the car in a close up: the camera is shaking once again like it is handheld. The camera is once again at the low angle, to see how fast the cars are travelling, there is then a long shot allowing the action to pass the camera, and carry on into the distance. This shows the fast pace action.
8.	The camera is close up to the character, showing his expression, and shakes to mimic the movements of the car. It then cuts to the other character. This shows his frantic expression. Both their expressions looked stressed and angry.

Filming Day

On the 12th of January Laura, Kiah and myself filmed our opening sequence with the help of two voluntary actors! We tried to film as many shots as possible, so that if when we are editing we have a lot of material to work with. During the shoot we had to bear in mind all of the hazards which could have taken place, especially as during the shoot the lights did get quite hot. 
During the shoot we made different decisions to what was storyboarded at some points, because we found that some of the shots would work better than the ones which we had originally planned. We also filmed some extra scenes which we will edit together to create a behind the scenes film. Overall, our day of filming went well and we hopefully managed to capture shots which will be able to create an opening sequence which will appeal to our target market.