Re-Shot Opening Credits

Due to comments on our rough cut edition of 'Science Boys' opening, we decided to re-shoot our opening credits. Previously we used a book with our credits written in by hand and flicked through the pages. However, it was a little bit boring and slow. Although we were inspired to film the credits like that because of the film 'Napoleon Dynamite' and they do suite the conventions of our genre, me and Kirsty both agreed we could make them more interesting. Therefore, we re-shot them on Friday (24th) by printing out our credits using the same font we used for the 'Science Boys' title and then stuck them on different locations around the school. We did this my shooting Helen and Kirsty running up with hoods on and sticking the credits on to things like lockers, drinks machines, chalk boards and even people (me!). It looks more interesting, has a faster pace and is quite funny too. Hopefully, when we edit them onto the beginning of what we have already done it will look very effective.

Rough Cut!

Our 'Science Boys' rough cut is finally here. There will be music on the opening credits and voiceovers when we are showing each character which we have not yet put in as this is just the rough cut (so when wathcing it, you don't require sound!) We are really glad that we re-shot our footage as what we now have is so much better, more diverse and more interesting. Obviously, this is just our rough cut so there are some changes that need to be made. What I am really proud of though is that what we have created actually looks like the opening sequence of film.

NOTE TO SIR: should we include freeze-frames of each character with their character name printed on like we saw in 'Trainspotting' or will this look cheesy?

Review of New Footage....So Far So Good

Yesterday, me and Kirsty got to see our new footage on the computer. I'm very pleased with the shot of the four boys walking down the corridor as they begin in darkness and then walk into the light so we can use it as part of our 'spoof' idea. We looked at the two possible endings that we shot: the first of the dopey character Daniel walking into the camera, the second of the character Ashley covering it with his hand. We both preferred the second as it gave us a totally black screen which we were then going to place the text 'Science Boys' over. The short collection of shots we got of each character individually look good and we have a range of camera angles in there too which we needed. My favourite has to be the one of Ashley checking himself out in the mirror as it is very comical especially when he picks up his science textbook at the end (look out for that one!)


Next week editing finally begins....

Reflection on Re-Shoot

Due to our footage not being up to standard, we had to re shoot and change our concept slightly. Instead of following the science boys as they walked down the corridor with a dolly-shot, we decided to take inspiration from the 'Hot Fuzz' opening we analysed and made the science boys walk towards the camera while it stayed in the same place. To add to the comedy, we made did some shots of the boys walking into the camera and then some where the character Ashley puts his ahnd over the camera. We hope to use this scene as a 'spoof' so the characters look like a cool gang sturtting towards the camera, but then as they get closer it becomes clear they are a group of nerds.

When we filmed this shot, we used a different corridor in B-block which was darker at the end the corridor where the actors began. This meant that at the beginning you couldn't make out their appearances so this really added to the 'spoof' effect. The shot we liked the most was the character Ashley covering the camera screen with his hand however we will ahev to look and review all the shots on the computer (hopefully, by tomorrow.)

Also when we did the re-shoot, we did small montages of each character using various camera angles. For the character Fenton, we had him working hard at a desk and adjusted a calculator that wasn't straight to make his character look very precise and orgnised. We made the character Daniel come into a room and trip dropping all his booksa nd files and then picking them back up - this was tricky and we needed to concentrate on continuity of where the books fell. For the character Ashley, we got him doing his hair in the boys toilets and then leaving with his trusty biology textbook. Finally, for the character Matt we got him drawing obscene pictures on a classroom door to show how he tries to be rebelious. The Matt section should use an action match and he goes from the whiteboard and then runs out the door.

We also re-hot our credit sequence with the notebook turnign with the credits written on the page. We had to redo this with a tripod to make it steadier than how we had originally shot it but apart from that, it reamined the same to the original shooting we did.

Having to re-shoot has really taught me the importance of a tripod! Although some of the footage we had from our Saturday filming was good, we wanted it at the highest quality we could and also we did not have enough variety of camer-angles. During our re-shoot me and Kirsty were very concious of having a variety of shots to show off our ability. We were also very lucky that our original actors were cooperative and agreed to another time to re-shoot otheriwse we may ahve had to rethink our who concept. Also, I've realised our original idea of shooting may have been over-mabicious (especially due to the lack of professional equiptemnt we have as media students) so I know that in the future, to really think about the logistics of an idea and how practical it really is for us to achieve.

We NEED Extra Footage

After reviewing our footage from Saturday, me and Kirsty realised (with the help of Mr Earl) that we need to shoot some more footage. Mainly because we need to show a variety of camera angels in our project but also because some of our shots are wobbly due to our DIY dolly. 


We will be filming some short videos showing the characteristics of each character tomorrow in our freed period and after school. Hopefully, this will give us more to work with when editing. It isn't ideal, but at least we still have time to shoot more and hopefully with this extra footage our opening sequence will look even better!

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.