11/10/2011
Group members present:
• Hannah Jeffs
• Laura Perry
• Dale Stacy
Actors present:
• Katie smith
• Caroline store
• Emma
Location:
• Café (DA)
What we filmed:
We filmed a few shots for our first scene ‘gossip’ including the tracking shot to the seating area and the group shot of the conversation about the student and teacher rumours. This scene is also the introduction to one of the main characters who are having the affair with the teacher. We also filmed a close up of this character who is played by Katie, through the use of this camera shot we are able to show her facial expressions and her tone of her voice.
Problems faced:
Since we were filming in the school café, which is available to anyone in the school, there were other people around. This meant that there was a lot of unwanted background noise such as coughing and shouting. These sounds were too loud and inappropriate to be suitable for diegetic sound. The cameras height had to be adjusted frequently to get the shots at the right angles, to make the most of the location and to avoid obstructing the furniture. The other problem we faced was just the actresses struggling to get into their characters, getting their lines and timings correct and overcoming the ‘giggles’. These problems just subsided eventually and we managed to film the rest of the scene successfully within our time frame.
Filming log
14/10/2011
Group members present:
• Hannah Jeffs
• Laura Perry
• Dale Stacy
Actors present:
• Katie Smith
• Przemek Grabowski
Location:
• 207
What we filmed:
We filmed the ‘flashback scene’, where the teacher Mr Berly, played by Przemek, and student, played by Katie, meet for the first time, for this we filmed a long shot of the teacher sitting at her desk marking some papers and the student being shown into the room by another teacher. We also filmed close ups of both the teacher and students faces to show their happiness and interest in each other. We also filmed a few extra shots which were not previously planned such as a close up on the teacher’s eye’s to show how his eyes are drawn from his work and towards this new student, which emphasises the interest he has in her and also gives a clue almost to later events where he has to choose between his career or the girl the girl ultimately winning.
Problems faced:
We did not encounter many problems while filming this scene, however there was a few things which did not go to plan such as the actors/actresses had to get into their characters which took a few moments although this was not a major problem and was sorted out within a few minutes. The only other problem encountered was the camera was loosely attached to the tripod meaning the camera struggled to get into a flat angle and also tilted itself down every time we got it to correct angle however we managed to fix this problem by figuring out how to tighten it correctly enabling us to finish the scene with the planned and appropriate shots.
19/10/2011
Group members present:
• Hannah Jeffs
• Laura Perry
• Dale Stacy
Actors present:
There were no actors required for this scene.
Location:
• Outside main school entrance and café
What we filmed:
Today we filmed an establishing shot of the school/café starting with a close up of the school sign continuing slowly and steadily zooming out, once we reached full zoom out we then panned the camera till we were facing the café. We did this shot just to emphasise the location of where our soap is set which is within a school. This shot will most likely be used at the start of the trailer then followed by the ‘gossip’ scene.
Problems we faced:
There were only two problems we had while filming which we overcame easily. The first problem we had was just getting the camera to zoom out slowly and at a steady pace but we soon managed to get it right after a few trial runs and a few changes of pace. The only other problem we had was people walking past and entering our shot once again we overcame this very simply by just using common sense and filming when we were sure that no one was going to enter the frame since we could not stop people from walking past due to the fact it is the entrance to the school.
03/11/2011
Group members present:
• Hannah Jeffs
• Laura Perry
• Dale Stacy
Actors present:
• Przemek Grabowski
• Katie smith
Location:
• 207
What we filmed:
Today we filmed the final teacher Mr Berly, played by Przemek, and the student, played by Katie (teacher and student relationship). This scene is where the student confronts the teacher about people knowing, the teacher then asks her to run away with him. For this scene we used a long shot for when we had Katie walking into the room and we also used a mid-shot/group-shot for when the important ‘run away with me’ dialogue occurs.
Problems we faced:
Once again we encountered the problem of actors struggling to get into character. In the end they were able to stop laughing and were able to play their roles. In our ‘Flashback’ scene we had arranged the classroom in a certain way, however, when we came back it was arranged differently, therefore continuity was then an issue.. We also had a problem with the tripod which we had in the earlier scenes, which is the inability to get the camera to stay at the. However, in the end we were able to get it right and happy with the outcome. Sometimes we were also quite unorganised with things like making sure we had the script us. On a couple of occasions we had to disrupt the filming process, find it and teach the actors it. This meant we wasted some time.
10/11/2011
Group members present:
• Hannah Jeffs
• Laura Perry
• Dale Stacy
Actors Present:
None were present due to the inability to film
Location:
Planned on filming in the science corridor however were unable to do so.
What we filmed:
We planned on filming the ‘bullying’ scene however due to time constraints we were unable to film on this occasion. However we plan on filming it as soon as we can get all the actors and the location ready.
Problems we faced:
As stated in the earlier paragraph we ran out of time, therefore it was the only problem that we faced which has stopped us from being able to film on this date. We will then try to be more efficient with our time so that we can film again.
16/11/2011
Group members present:
• Hannah Jeffs
• Laura Perry
• Dale Stacy
Actors present:
• Alex
Location:
• Science toilets
What we filmed:
Today we filmed the ‘breakdown’ scene where the bullied boy, played by Alex, finally has an emotional break down after years of abuse and bullying by a group of lads. In this scene we filmed a variety of shots at a variety of angles, such as a ‘Dutch’ tilt to emphasis his emotions. We film him performing a range of violent and crazy actions such as pacing up and down the toilets, punching the walls and sitting in a vulnerable position crying. For this we filmed each action in a few different angles since we plan on jump cutting a lot of the clips together at a very fast pace to create a more edgy feel as well as emphasising the fact that his mind is broken and he is going crazy because this method keeps the viewer from being able to focus for so long they cannot focus completely on one thing before it changes so it seems more busy and then this also mirrors what is happening in the characters mind since so many things are going through his head.
Problems we faced:
We faced a major issue in the filming of this scene and one of which we could not completely overcome. This problem occurred because we had filmed a few of the clips for this scene a few weeks prior to this session and Alex was in the process of growing some facial hair for charity. When we did film, we were careful not focus to carefully on the face. The only other problem we faced was expected. People kept entering the room and since it was a toilet which is open to the entire. Thankfully, we were able to film without too many people coming in since the shots were all quite short.
Filming Log
18/11/2011
Group members present:
• Hannah Jeffs
• Laura Perry
• Dale Stacy
Actors present:
• Alex Ewen
Location:
• By the lockers in the science area
What we filmed:
Today we filmed the scene where the bullied person, Alex, gets attacked by the lockers. This attack leads to the student having an emotional breakdown and then committing suicide. In this scene we used a group of people for the gang of bullies. We used a variety of shots for this including low angles, high angles and close ups and group shots.
Problems we faced:
During the filming of this scene we encountered a few problems the biggest of which was the fact, for health and safety reasons, we had to choreograph the hitting and pushing in such a way that it looks realistic as well as preventing the actors from getting injured in the process. Also since the scene is very quick and fast paced we could not pre-plan our shots since we had no idea how it would end up being like so we filmed the whole scene from a variety of angles and therefore we have to pick then edit the shots together that we want by doing this however it took longer than we had originally hoped but since the outcome will be more professional we believe it was worth it. Once again background noise and people passing in the corridor had to be told to be quiet or politely wait until we had finished.
24/11/2011
Group members present:
• Hannah Jeffs
• Laura Perry
• Dale Stacy
Actors present:
• Alex Ewen
• Hayley Poppleton
Location:
• Girls toilets in the science area
What we filmed:
Today, we were able to film the final scene which was the ‘suicide’ scene where the bullied student (Alex) takes a turn for the worse and commits suicide. In this scene we were able to create some fake blood and spread it around the floor and his wrist. By doing this we were able to create a life like situation as well as shocking the audience. This scene is planned to be the second to last scene in our trailer and is also the main feature for the cliff-hanger. The reason we had him ‘commit suicide’ is because not only does it make an interesting ending, it also shows how bullying can actually affect people so therefore it has real-life situations woven into it. Therefore, reflects the audience’s answers when we carried out the questionnaire. We also tried to put across the idea of how bullying can end up turning into the worst situations.
Problems we faced:
Fortunately we were lucky not to encounter any serious problems, however the minor problems that did occur were easy to overcome. The first problem that we faced while filming numerous times were people entering the area where we were filming. Since the toilets are public we couldn’t tell people to go away, therefore, we had to wait for the right opportunity which was during lesson times. The second small issue was making the blood. It proved to be more difficult than we previously thought, however we managed to create a liquid that looked realistic. Furthermore, we then had to consider that we cleaned up all the fake blood since it created a lot of mess and could potentially stain the floors. Luckily it didn’t stain and didn’t take too long. If we had left it, it would have caused a health risk and so we were ensuring that all was cleaned up properly.
By Dale Stacy and Laura Perry
