Reflection from our filming and editing

After looking throug our footages, we noticed how much filming left we have of our scenes:

- The 'buckling' scene - when the nerd buckles on the skateboard at the popular girls feet.

- The locker scene - When the popular asks the nerd for help and he confronts her about 'the secret'.

- The flashback scene- 'the secret' the nerd witnessed.

This week is our last chance to record these scenes and edit it a bit before the 'rough-cut deadline' on Wednesday. We also have the soundtrack and credits to insert when editing.

^^ This is how much we have filmed and edited so far.

Also after speaking to Rebecca and showing her our opening, she said our opening was too long and we would need to cut a scenes out. So we decided to cut out the flashback scene where Kevin is supposed to find out Lindsey's secret, as e have cut that out e need to come up with a new name as the title of the film was based around the secret.   

First Day Editing

Today, our original plan  was to film the remaining scenes failed as two of the group members have fallen ill. So instead we made use of our time by starting to edit the scenes we have managed to film already.

We were editing our filming using the application 'Final Cut Pro', editing was much harder than we thought, we had to cut alot of parts off from each scene and find appropriate moments in the scene to smoothly merge into the next scene.The problem we are worried about now is the recording being over two minutes after we complete editing as two minutes is our time limit. However, one point were quite happy withis our shot types like 'over the shoulder' and 'two shot'.

THIRD DAY OF FILMING

Today we used the hour and a half session of Media to film the final part of Kane's journey to the college until his left peeking from behind a tree looking at the entrance of the college.We could have got other scenes done but we were missing some props like the nerds style glasses and red nail polish. 
 However, we booked to use the camcorder and tripod as we have planned to meet up on Wednesday afternoon and film the rest of the remaining scenes such as the locker scene, the flashback scene and the buckling scene. This will leave us prepared to to have the rest of the lessons till the deadline to edit and work on our recordings.

Third Day of Filming

During Marissa's hour and a half lesson are original plan was to film the locker scene and buckling scenes, however Kane forgot to bring his glasses which is an important prop of the nerds and as he is supposed to be wearing them at all times during the the opening scene we were not able to film. In order to fit we had to change the opening scene showing the nerds journey to school we decided he would walk but start skating once he is close to the school in order to show his peers that he is trying to be 'cool'. So we filmed different shots from behind Kevin where his face is not shown. The filming was good and easy as we had wide shots and long shots.

Third Day Of Filming

Our third day of filming was done in Marissas 1 hour 30 minute less. Our original plan for this lesson was to film the locker scene and the buckling scene if we had time however Kane did not bring the glasses he was wearing the first day of filming therefore we could not film the scenes we originally planned to film due to continuity problems. So instead of waisting the lesson time we decided to re shoot the scene we done on the second day of filming because we were not entirely happy with what we done and we decided we wanted to change our original plan because of the difficulties kane was having skateboarding. So instead of our original idea of kane skating all the way to the college we diced he was going to walk to the college and just before he gets to the college he starts skateboarding, we chose this idea because we thought the idea shows that he is not good at skateboarding and the only reason he does it is to show off in front of the rest of the college and seem 'cool'.

SECOND DAY OF FILMING

We done our second day of filming in the half term holiday, we all agreed to meet at the college and film the journey scene on 'Ellia Street'. It is located near the college so we got there quite fast.

It was much harder than we thought it was going to be, we had to retake the same shots over and over again making sure the camera was in the right position and only focuses on Kane's legs. We also had to make sure Kane skates in the same speed - not too fast and not too slow. The weather was also really cold and grey and we spent up to three hours filming outside! From 12:00 - 3:00 pm. This was the only day we met up to film in the holidays leaving to the rest of the scenes to film once college opens again, this is because the rest of the scenes requires the lockers and the entrance if the college which wont be such a hassle to film as the journey scene was.

FIRST DAY OF FILMING

Our first day of filming was done in the college classroom, we filmed the scene where both the nerd and the mean are in the classroom having the lesson coming to an end, as a group, we decided they should be sat next to each other so their contrast in behaviour is emphasised, kane is focusing on his work while Fatima is spinning on her chair acting careless.
   I think it was a great start to our project of the opening of our teenage film as our shots came out perfectly being cautious with the 'head space' and 'face grid'. We redone the scene couple of times over just in-case we any mistakes or errors when editing the scene, also taking numerous types of shots such as 'over the shoulder' and 'close up' of the teachers face and serious expressions towards Fatima. Another factor  we were quite satisfied with this particular scene was the setting and props of the classroom which was actually a problem at the beginning. We had an empty classroom at the start with no students or teachers to make it seem like an actual classroom, so this left us with no option but to go the library and politely ask some people to help us by  taking part in the scene playing as students. This really helped the scene result to seem more realistic and build the teenage atmosphere, we were really grateful for them participating.
   

Second Day Filming

Today was the first day during the holidays where we met up to film. We were filming the nerds journey to school on the skateboard. Originally we thought that it was going to be very easy to film however, e were wrong as Kane who is playing Kevin the nerd was not able to skate very far on the skateboard. Also the street we were filming on was very bumpy and was on a hill which made it difficult to film and skate as we had to take re shots in order to make the filming good.

The weather was also very bad as it was freezing outside, we only filmed from 12.00-3.00. This was the only day we meet up to film as the other today's we booked it was raining and as all our shots were outside we did not want to damaging the equipment and it would have not been precise filming as our scenes would of had one scene of rain and no rain.

Second Day Of Filming

Our second day of filing was done done in our half term holiday, a day we agreed as a group was suitable to film, although the weather was really cold and windy we managed to film the travelling scene which included Kane to take many attempts riding on his skateboard, he wasn't very good at skateboarding and fell a few times which made filming our scene more difficult also the place that he was skateboarding in was a very bumpy road which made filming extra difficult.

Our third day of filming was meant to be the following day however it started raining and as a group we decided it would be best if we did not film on this day because we did not want to ruin the equipment and if we filmed whilst it was raining the movie would not have continuity.

First Day Of Filming

The first day of our filming went great, it was set in our classroom for the 'class scene' from our plan.
At the beginning of our filming we realised we didn't have pupils for our classroom setting which forced us with no choice but to search around for people around the college. Luckily, we found enough to make it look like real classroom setting from the library- took some persuasion but we got there!
 While filming, we had to take many 're-shots' and 'cut and go's' so a lot of patience was required. However, i think we worked pretty well for our first day as a group and were satisfied on how much we done and the outcome of this scene.  Also, we had to ask for a teacher to act in our scene so we are really thankful to all the volunteers who helped us with our filming

First Day of Filming

 First Day of Filming

Today we started filming for our film Secret for a Secret. We started off with filming the classroom scenes where Kevin (Kane) and Lindsey (Fatima) are in class and the teacher sets an assignment to the whole class.





We faced a few problems while filming we needed to have a few extras in the scene to show the whole class so we had to quickly go to the library and ask a few people to take part in our film which they agreed to do as long as they did not have to act in the scene. We also e supposed to have Rebecca playing our teacher however she had to moderate A2 work so we had another media teacher fill in for her.

Framing Tutorial

Today in Marissa's lesson, Mikey one of the media techs came and showed as a eight minute long video of all the different shot types and this which are and are not allowed during filming.
He reminded as of all the different shot types and said that most media students forget to do close up shots  and mid shots and not to have head space while filming as that, was another problem that other media students previously faced. Another point also was that to use the tripod and fig rig so none of our footage was shaking, by having footage that is constantly shaking it makes the whole opening over all very unprofessional.

The video also gave examples of the different shot types and tracking scenes from another TV show, which was good as it made it easier to understand and remember so when it comes to filming are are not confused.

These are two different close up shots

FEEDBACK OF OUR PITCH

 On Monday, our group was the first group to present the pitch in front of the class, we presented the pitch using Prezzi, we split different parts of the presentation to each member of our group so that we all had something to explain tot he class. I think we all presented it quite confidently and explained everything clearly and properly and that our Prezzi  presentation mad our presentation all the more interesting and made it easier to understand our plan for our teenage film.
 Overall, the teacher was very impressed with our group and how we delivered our Pitch Presentation, we also received useful feedback that will help develop on our opening of the teenage film for example:

POSITIVE FEEDBACK:
     - Soundtracks we have chosen is perfect as it build the perfect teenage atmosphere.
     - Our props fits the characters well making it easy to distinguish the stereotypical characters.
     - Our camera shot types is suitable to film Kane skating as he does not know how to skate, the method of us holding and guiding him is practical as we will only be filming his legs and the skateboard.

IMPROVEMENTS:
    - We forgot to mention our target audience by pinpointing that it will be a film suitable a large audience meaning for young and old teenagers and even for adults as they will all be able to relate to the storyline as  they can reminisce their younger times.
    - Another point we forgot to include was the screen shots of our storyboards, i think this was resulted through our group rushing on the last minute even though we did take screen shots and downloaded it to the file but we forgot to paste it onto our Prezzi presentation. However, our teacher allowed us to add it         in :)

Feedback Of Our Pitch

On the 7th our group went first to present our pitch, the presentation method we used was Prezzi. We presented our work to the rest of the class as a group, each member of our group spoke and explained all the different parts to our teen film.
I think the presentation went pretty well, every member of our group contributed and we were all confidant in what we were presenting. The presentation that we created on Prezzi was extremely helpful when presenting our work to the rest of the class, because it was clear for us to understand as well as the rest of the class to understand, it also conveyed our story line extremely well.
At the end of our presentation our teacher commented on our pitch saying that she was impressed with our work so far. We received both positive and negatives of our work from the audience and teacher, the feedback was:

Positive:
That the sound track that our group chose was prefect for the opening  of our teen movie.
That our costumes for the two central characters- the nerd and the mean girl creates the perfect outlook of their roles
That our camera shot types for every scene as been well thought out and planned so that we get the
filming movement on point

Negative:
- The most obvious factor which totally slipped out of our groups mind while preparing the pitch was to include who are target audience was, though, Rebecca allowed us to include it later as it wasn't such an important point.
- Another obvious mistake we made was to add a screen shot of our story board up to show a visual idea of the opening of our teenage film, but again we made time to upload it up into our presentation.

Pitch Feedback

We presented our pitch to the whole class and we were also the first group to present our pitch, we recived good feedback from the class which was positive as we know we are doing something right. The positive feedback we recieved was that we had a sample of different soundtrack that went well with our film and the props went well with our characters.

However, we forgot to include our storyboard and who our target audience is in our prezzi presentation. The feedback that we got back from Rebecca was to remember to go into a quiet room while recording our voice over. As we are filming the characters journey to school on a skateboard we must film the shots more than once to get accurate shots. As sometimes the person filming may be shaking while filming.

Pitch

Film Poster

Our group created this poster and think it fits well for our teen film beacuase like every other movie posters, people can get a hint of the plot and an idea of what the film will be based byt the different expressions on the characters faces and the dressing styles.
Its also very obviouse to tell who the central characters will be in the film - The Popular Blonde Girl
and The Nerd.

Inspiration for Our Teen Film

The main character in our teen film is a nerd, we got this idea from Geek Charming.








We decided that we wanted to have the titles of our film at the beginning while the film is playing. We got this idea from The Roommate.

We also decided to have voice over at the beginning of the film, we got this idea from The Breakfast Club

Planning Final Project- Costumes and Actors

In our opening we have two main characters. The Nerd who is known as Kevin, who is going to be played by Kane and The Popular Girl who is known as Lindsey, who is going to be played by Fatima.




The Nerd will be wearing a smart shirt with a black tie as most nerds dress smart we thought this would be appropriate for Kevin to wear to school. He will also be wearing glasses and have a big rucksack to show the audience the stereotypical impression of a nerd as most nerds wear glasses and carry a big bag to carry their books.

The popular girl will be wearing a black skirt and cream colour blouse to show that she is very girly and ill be carrying a handbag and mirror as it is essential for the popular girl to be consistently looking into her handbag and looking at her appearance in the mirror.

Planning Final Project-Props

The props we have decided to use is a skateboard to show the journey of the Nerd travelling to school. We also decided to show that Kane (the nerd) we will need glasses for him to wear as all stereotypical nerds have glasses and a big rucksack for him as most nerds carry their books and folders in.

For the popular we decided she would need to have a handbag to carry her make up and school books and we also decided she would carry her phone, mirror and lipstick as most stereotypical popular has a mirror on her at all times and there is even a shot of Lindsey (popular girl) applying lipstick on during the lesson.

Planning Final Project - Animatic

Planning- Storyboard

This is our storyboard for A Secret for a Secret. Under the drawings we have written the different shot and camera angles that will be used and which character is in the scene to help us and make it easier for when it comes to filming our opening.

Planning Process

Plot Line:

We decided on our plot line by first choosing that we would do a stereotypical high school teen movie.
We have a nerd coming to school on a skateboard, once he gets inside the school he trips over where the popular girl is and she helps him up he then remembers seeing her during the holidays kissing another girl. Once he gets to lesson the popular girl sits net to him in class and they are told they have to do an assignment, Lindsey (popular girl) is told she must pass and get a B or above. After lesson is finished she then goes to Kevin (the Nerd) for help however, he says ' haven't i helped you enough'.

We bounced off ideas from one another in a group conversation and we all contributed different ideas, some of us had different ideas to others but then we all co-operated with each other to come up with our final plot line. By taking all our suggestions into consideration and finally mixing bits of each others ideas we resulted in our final creative plot line. It has a mix of romance, mystery and comedy.

Some of our ideas were created using influences from other teen movies.
An example of this would be that we are using voice over; the idea of the voice over came form the introduction of the breakfast club.
Were also going to have music playing in the background during the voice over, this is another idea we used from the introduction of the breakfast club.

We also used teen movies with geeks in them such as the "Inbetweeners Movie" and "Geek Charming" to help us decide what kind of cloths we would want our geek character to wear because we want a stereotypical geek in our teen movie. After looking at teen movies and using our own ideas we decided that our geek character is going to wear glasses, a smart shirt with a tie and braces, a big rucksack, black jeans and vans. We decided that we want our character to look like he is a geek but also have a modern cloths on as well to show that the character is trying too hard to fit in.

In our teen movie we will have a stereotypical popular girl. To get ideas of what we wanted her to dress like we looked at teen chick flick movies such as "Mean Girls" and "Clueless". The popular girls in these movies conventionally wears skirts and tight tops. We decided that our popular girl is going to wear a skirt and a blouse.

Film Opening Soundtracks- ?

 The is the first soundtrack we are considering to use in our teen film is JellyLegs by The Long Now.  The reason why we chose this was because it has helps to create the stereotypical teenage atmosphere just like in the teenage movies. The soundtrack is very upbeat and easy going which we feel as a group will fit very well with the opening of our film as at the beginning it shows the character making his journey to school with his skateboard-  a very typical teenage way.





 This second soundtrack we have chosen is Honky Tonk Truth by David Certano. The reason why we decided on this was because the sound track is very up tempo, it gives off a very careless attitude which is very popular within teenage years and  a factor which our group is trying to include  in our teen film by making the central character which is a geek lack some morals by making him skate without a helmet which results him loosing balance at the end.





 This third soundtrack we have decided on is Tasteless by Fresh Body Shop. The reason we have taken a liking to this tune is because it has a mix of upbeat with a more subtle music- - almost reflecting the constant change of moods of teenagers, unlike the other two soundtrack which is just an upbeat theme throughout the whole track this specific track is more deep and creative.

Planning Final Project- Locations

The different types of locations we have chosen are: the outside of  City and Islington College, the corridor on the third floor as filming will take place there so, to make it easy for us we have also chosen the classroom scene to be on the third floor and the looker scene.

To show the nerds travelling to school scene we will be filming on streets close by the college.

What We Have Planned So Far

Our group got together and through in different ideas on what we wanted our teen Film to be about, we then chose what we thought will go well together and finally decided on a plot.

What we have planned so far:

•  We have agreed on the title of our Teen Film- A Secret for a Secret 
• We have chosen our location where we will be filming- City and Islington College,Kane's House, Park 
•  We have looked at other teen films to gain inspiration such as Geek Charming- as the central character in the movie is a nerd. we decided to have voice over, this was an idea we got from The Breakfast Club. 
• We also planned a production schedule, so we are up to date with the different days we are able to film and edit and have everything finished by the deadline date which is 12th March