Day 5 Of Filming

This day was the day we left Deon Hunte a group member to take charge of the establishing shot of the police station. The location of this scene was Edmonton Green, and Deon Hunte gladly worked hard to produce a good shot of the police station. This was a group decision for him to take the shot himself as he would have put a bigger input in the tasks, because it seemed like myself and Lynette were doing a lot for the team. It was also a good idea for Deon to take the shot as he lived close to the police station and knew the area very well.

Day 4 Of Filming

23rd March 2012


Once again we decided to make a video dairy, so that our day to day stages of completing the film is caught by you the 'bloggers'. This way it also shows you what we are up to rather than me telling you.

This day was the last day of filming as a group, we allowed Deon Hunte to be in charge for that day. We shot the scene where Mandy would open the letter that was sent by her attacker, this apart of the film should have audience wondering what is going on. 

Organisation was a key aspect of getting this part of the film done and dusted to the best of our ability. We were organised enough to finish the scene without that much trouble, however we can not go a day without no trouble at all. There were some things that was not prefect about filming on this day but some how we got through it. 

The difficulties we went through:

As we had to use the common room's kitchen area as the kitchen of the girl who was attacked (Jenessa Tawiah). We had to have the setting of the seen as quite as possible but this was seen to be a problem. We had students making noise as it was their independent study time and we had to use the location at the same time they had their study time. I could assure you no studying was going on there, and we had to get the students quite some how. So as a team we asked some of the students nicely to keep the noise down, after asking the main group of students to settle down the other individuals saw how much we needed the location to be quite so they allowed us to shoot the film whiles they were as quite as possible. 

I believe the paragraph above was the main difficulty we went through, this may have been because we were well organised and more alert over things that may go wrong. This is not me trying to be over confident about our filming saying nothing was wrong with it at all, I just believe that we as a team have learnt from our mistakes and we made sure they did not happen again. 

Things that went well  

Another great location for the shot, once again it showed some realism. Lynette was the person who found us the lovely location, she did a real good job of thinking it through. As you may have heard me say, or should I say try to say 'verisimilitude' the location should definitely make the audience believe that the common room kitchen is a normal household kitchen.

Once again I believe the actors and actresses managed to come dressed appropriately. They also followed instructions well, they listened to what we had to say and we guided and directed them without any trouble. I believe gave it their all and completed the task without any complaints, some good constructive comments were made by an actor and we took this on board and changed what was seen to not be useful. That showed me that the teamwork makes positive things happen. 

Here are a few pictures of the day:

The Location (common room kitchen)

   Actress (Jenessa Tawiah) getting into character 

The mystery letter sent by the attacker 

Day 2 Of Filming

21st March 2012

Throughout some of the days of filming I and the team have decided to do some video diaries, we would be doing the day to day stages of the film. This is just a video explaining what was happening at that exact time and what we were up to whiles waiting to start the filming.

This day was the day we shot the main part of the thriller , this day was for the chase scene to be done. As this part of the opening sequence was the actual thriller scene we had to hope for the best.

One difference from the first day of shooting was that the day looked more promising, this was because my team and I were organised and planned what we were going to do. However there were some silly mistakes and some difficulties.

The difficulties we went through


We could of started the filming a little bit earlier. The reason we did not leave as early was because one of our main actors (Abiola Fatusin) had become hungry, he decided to enjoy a meal of pizza. We allowed him to go and get his pizza as he had been putting up with us telling him what to do and what not, and we want our actors to feel comfortable so that they can preform to the best of their ability.

We also had another problem with our good old friend Mr Tripod, we left it in our Assistant Head of Year's office for safe keeping, we failed to get the tripod before she had left to go home. We didn't let the barrier stop us and decided to use the top of Deon Hunte's (group member) head, this helped us a lot as the shot was steady and how we wanted it.

Another difficulty we went through was my fault. It was not until we had finished the filming for the day I  decided to go through what we have filmed on the day. I had noticed that the particular scene that I filmed and was real happy about was no where to be seen, what had happened was I shot the part when we was celebrating my skilful use of a camera. So one of the main frames of that day was lost and could not be done again because the lighting was not the same. I guess me calling myself Alfred Hitchcock Junior got to my head a bit. However I went back to the location to did the shot again, so we would not lose out on a lot of time, I also had to thank Abiola Fatusin for allowing me to waste some more of his time; but it was all for a good cause.

The Things that went well

The actor and actress helped I and the team dearly as they came in the correct attire, this helped really well so that we could get the mis en scene to the best of our ability.

Another thing I believed went well was the location, this really went well with the type of mis en scene we as a team were looking for. Once again I was put in charge of picking a location and I am flattered that my team loved what I produced. The location was a type of forest were there was a footpath and it looked very scary if I may say so myself. There was a great lighting on that day and we was able to achieve the shots we wanted .

The location of the Scene 

Another thing I believed went well was the teamwork, Although I did a massive mistake in not pressing the record button when we needed to, as a team we laughed about it and worked together to decide what we are going to do to overcome the barrier. We ended up overcoming the barrier and finally finished what was once not  done (Day 3).


Here are a few pictures of my team and I at work (Day 2 Of Filming) :

Group members and actress (Jenessa Tawiah) checking what shot angles are suitable.

Myself in the background directing 

I was afraid of the dark so held on to Lynette, joking. Lynette giving me some directions.

22nd March 2012 (Day 3 Of Filming)

I was told to complete the shots we were missing, as it was only one frame and would not take up much time I decided to do this part of the project on my own. Well I was not alone as I needed the attacker (Abiola Fatusin) to finish the shot, so much thanks goes to Abiola as he allowed me to waste his time once again because of my nonsense. Me and the actor managed to work hard and finally get the shot done, it was not as easy as we though as passer bys decided to walk straight into the shots. After all the difficulties the finish product was watched by my group members the next day, they believed I had done a great job and we continued to think about what we are going to do next.

What was meant to be Day 2 Of Filming

20th March 2012

This days was meant to be the second day of shooting, but there was a few impliacations including the lack of communication. The lack of communication led to one of the main actors (Jenessa Tawiah) not knowing we were going to shoot the second part of the film. Jenessa had to attened something important that she already has comittments for.

The delay has put a bit of pressure on my group and I, but we have planned it well this time and have decided as a group to shoot tomorrow (21st March 2012). The timing would definately have to change, hopefully this would not affect us in a big way. From now have to just 'work our socks off !'

Day 1 Of Filming

19th Of March 2012

The difficulties we went through:

First day of shooting, unfortunately there was a technical difficulty right from the start (battery of camera died), this affected our timing quite badly. However we wouldn't want this to stop us at all so we decided to move on.

Another difficulty was that studying periods are affecting our timing dearly. We all have different timing to each other as in different classes. We as a team have decided to make Media Studies our main objective as we all really want to do well, hopefully achieve a good grade.

A member of our group (Lynette) believed that something was wrong with the tripod, it was not allowing her to get the angle she wants; so she decide to use the handheld method of shooting. I believed that this may affect the film as she may shake whiles shooting from the angle she was in, however I had faith in her and she came out on top.

Things that went well

The Lighting of the room was really good, as the sun allowed the room to be bright all round, which allowed the filming to carry on and go well.


The Location, I was able to sweet talk the Assistant Line Master and her Assistant into using their office to act as our Detective area, so that the mis en scene shows some realness. The office scene went quite well as we got what we wanted out of that day, after going through so any barriers. The office worked well as a detective’s office.

I and a group member decide to appoint Lynette as the person who gets the actors ready. I believed Lynette has the eyes to detect small inputs that may affect the scene in a negative way. We first appointed one of our team members (Deon) to be part of the detective team but he was dressed inappropriately for this scene. However I was able to help Lynette and Deon by getting an actor (Kelechi Asika) to act as one of the staff members in the office with Detective Morris (Me).

Me and Kelechi Asika worked really well as actors because we co operated well and followed the instructions of Lynette who acted as the director that day. This allowed filming to run well and smooth, which allowed a successful shot.

The Costumes that I and Kelechi Asika wore worked really well during the scene. We looked very professional and showed some sort of Verisimilitude.

Photos of what our group got up to:

Our Group At Work

Myself getting into character of Dectective Morris

Lynette showing her camera and directing skills  

Deon and Lynette working together to get the scene right

Actual Finalised Storyline

Title: Live To Tell
Genre: Crime, Drama, and Mystery Thriller
Rating: 15

Storyline: College student Mandy is attacked by a mysterious figure while on her way home from school. A week later when Mandy recovers from her attack she receives a letter in the post and opens it to find a note covered in soil which had a picture of a heart which read "its no fun if your hearts not in it"...


This is the full plot of what will happen throughout the whole film :

Following from when Mandy receives the letter, a series of events unfold which lead to the audience finding out that the antagonist( stalker/attacker) is the good guy but he’s out for revenge because of what Mandy (the protagonist) done in the past which involved him. This is why he wants to make her pay for what she did in the past by stalking, attacking and leaving notes...

The note covered in soil is symbolising death. Because of the location that he will attack her is in a forest area which is muddy and dirty, he's basically trying to say she deserves to be 6 feet underground or under dirt because that's where people are put when they die, and he wants her dead. (This is for the people that may not understand the plot entirely)

We finally came up with a title which Lynette came up with, reason she chose this title is because she had taken it from Madonna’s song 'Live To Tell' which we were going to use in our final product as a backing track. We did not end up using her song although we kept the name because it goes well with the plot.

Costume

The Dectectives (Myself & Kelechi Asika)

• Trench Jacket
• Shirt (White) & Tie (Navy & Red)
• Pin Suit Trousers (Grey)
• Trousers (Black)
• Shirt (Light Blue Shirt)
• Glasses

The Attacker

• Dark Tracksuit (Black & Grey)
• Trainers

The Girl

• Pink Jumper (Connotes innocence)
• Headphones
• Trainers