Shoot 2

Shoot Two completed. Putting aside the minor HR difficulties, such as getting a text at three in the morning saying that they wont be able to film today. Which I managed to sidestep, just - as I managed to pull in a favour to get a similar role fitting actor to fill the part. The second shoot was succesful, as I managed to compile all of the shots I needed from today.



I also managed to stick to my schedule which I had constructed to minimise filming casualties and to also organise different shots. Which resulted in not filming the scenes in a linear order but in a way that reduced the waiting times and kept continuity. This means I will have to sort out the shots during post production but this isn't an issue.






I feel that I've learnt from my first initial shoot and have since taken a more direct approach to directing; this was much easier thanks to myself knowing what shots I wanted to get, as seen by the above image. I feel that directing possibly wasn't my strong point seeing as last year we did our short film project as a group and I was able to take a behind the scenes role, in the sence I did a lot of the editing and shot construction but was with another person when directing our shooting.

Ancillary Text: Film Poster Mock

Title: The title will consist of... the title of my film which at the moment is "cloudy skies" but I am undecided. Im not sure if this will be the final title because ultimately I want something relative and memorable, "cloudy skies" doesnt currently fulfill this for myself at this point. Coexisting in this area will be the main actors name at the top of the page, if it was a famous actor then his name would be the first thing people read, however in my case my actor isn't famous but I am treating the film as if he is a recognisable actor.

Main Image Body: The main image for my film poster will be something along the lines of the main characters face, with a dull, whitened background of the forest to juxtapose the clarity and colour in the main characters face. This is to hint towards the plot, in the sense he dies and comes back in a sort of limbo, ghost phase.

Furthermore a close up shot allows the audience to understand what sort of character the film has. A distant, questioning look will be on his face.

Film Information: This section will contain information such as the film company and release date etc.

This film poster shows me that these aspects and sections can be blurred for aesthetic and practical reasons to create an appealing and quick/easy poster to read.

Shoot 1 Rough Cut

I've changed my main actor since this shoot but I thought it would be worthwhile to put together a rough edit of the clips together to get feedback and see where I need to improve. 

*Feedback - how to improve* 

Shoot 1

The first scene I shot was from about halfway through the film. The shop scene, this was because I wanted to get it done and out of the way as I didn't want to make the owners wait around since I achieved permission awhile ago.
Unfortunately the location was covered in snow - but seeing as I was unsure whether the snow would be staying indefinitely I decided to give it a shot nevertheless. If the snow is here throughout the short film it shouldn't affect the continuity. Thus the next shoots will need to be fairly soon.

The filming went reasonably well, however I discovered a serious flaw - I can't direct very well. I need to voice myself more to gain more control - it seems this concept doesn't come naturally, seeing as I do feel much more comfortable in the editing suite. To improve upon this I'm going to have to make sure I know what I'm doing 100% before I head off to shoot a scene. This way I will be able to take control of the shots with more confidence.

I've decided to change my main actor because of reliability issues in the sense I can work better with the other actor I will use and he is more readily available to film during my time frames. Furthermore he is older and fits the role more accurately in terms of his look. In real life he works as a internet designer, hopefully this will dispel some of the student film affects.

Furthermore throughout the process of the first shoot I felt I rushed myself and the actors - taking too few retakes of each shot and generally not taking my time and getting the best out of myself. To improve in this aspect I have to worry less about taking up too much time and just get the work done to the highest standard I know I can achieve.

I'm going to edit together this scene and post it in the next post, I will go through some feedback so I can progress on where I went wrong and what I need to do to improve. Hopefully this has provided me with a valuable learning experience I can move forward from.