Filming Day: Part 3

We were not the only people using the school on the Saturday we were filming, there was also a band practise. Because of this, we filmed the boys walking through the double doors into the hall and down the hall first so the band could begin their practise. We talked the the man in charge of the band practise to ensure this was alright and he was very helpful letting us film before their rehearsal begun. Once this part of the sequence was shot, we filmed the corridor before the boys entered the hall as we were scared we would not have enough footage to make the film at least 2 minutes long. After this we did different versions of the boys walking through the canteen from them walking into the camera to them walking round the corridor in one long dolly-shot. After this was achieved, we did the numerous takes of them walking through A-block and into the science room. After that was finally achieve, we made them do it again focusing the camera on a constant dolly-shot close-up on each character. This is for the freeze-frames we will create when editing which will not require the whole sequence but we wanted enough so we could have a choice of footage. 


We then let our actors have a break before we went outside to film the opening sequence. Due to weather conditions, our planned way of doing the opening credits had to be altered. We planned to have the character Daniel drop sheets onto the floor while running across the yard and then the camera would focus on these sheets where the credits would be written. However, due to wet and windy weather this could not be done. We took inspiration from the credit sequence from 'Napoleon Dynamite' and flicked through the pages of a notebook with our credit written on. We wanted the writing to look like a teenage boys writing so used one of our cast members, Sam Humby. To film this we had to stand above the table where Sam sat and count so he flicked between the pages in equal intervals. We used science textbooks and calculators, pens and badges to make the table look like a set-up of where they would do work. Here is how the notepad looked with our production company name on:

We filmed this as the weather was still bad before taking our actors outside to film the final part of the sequence. The character Daniel had to be rushing to meet his friends and fall; to do this we required our actor, Craig, to actually fall and then stay in his position on the floor so we didn't have continuity errors. This meant we had to work fast as the pavement was cold and damp. We then filmed he getting up and the camera followed him run towards his friends. We then got him to use some spontaneous dialogue to try and make it as realistic as possible. We also shot the three other characters laughing at Daniel's fall and Ashley shouting at him for him, which again we used spontaneous dialogue to make it realistic. Due to continuity, Amir had to shoot outside in just a t-shirt when it was very cold so we had to be fully prepared about what we wanted to shoot before we went outside. Also, me and Kirsty had to make a decision on how were going to change the first part of the sequence and incorporate the credits. However, from previous projects we knew things never go to plan so we were prepared to make decisions on the spot and tried to get as much footage as possible so we could change things around if needed in the editing process. 


We would like to thank all four of our actors, Craig, Sam, Michael & Amir, for their time, commitment and cooperation.