Re-Filming our Opening

As a group we decided to re-film our two minute movie all over again. We were all nervous about re-filming as we did not want to be dissapointed again but that made us determined to make sure we all work as a team and feel comfortable with the camera shots and to make sure we did stick to our storyboard.
We were all in high spirits and we all knew what camera shots we wanted to shoot first and we all made sure that the continuity was correct as in our last filming it was defiently something we could have improved on. When we last filmed it took us up to three hours due to the rain and the confusion we all had on what we wanted to include. However, when filming again even though it was still raining it only took us one hour and a half to get all the shots we wanted and we also included more takes and more camera angles. I am very pleased with the filming that we produced and the fact that we all worked more as a team this time.

The shots that I loved was the close up of Jack the Rippers hand coming over the victims face as I loved that the audience could tell the emotion of fear and confusion that appeared on the victims face but confidence, dark and twisted happiness that was shown on Jack the Rippers face. I like how this shot also links in to our research of the pictures and comic strips of Jack the Ripper and the anticipation has been rising for this moment where Jack the Ripper has caught his victim and it may make the audience tense and worried for the victim.
I loved our filming of the newspaper articles and the victims pictures in the conference room. I am very happy with these shots as the conference room was very dark and it had a board in there were we could pin up the pictures and articles. We tried many different camera shots and movements when filming this scene for example, we tried over the shoulder shot of J the R standing looking at the articles and victims, close ups of each victim as extra footage, tilt movement showing all of the newspapers and J the R circuling and crossing out the victims. However, we did have a few problems whilst filming these shots as the nightmode on the camera was too dark and it was not showing the articles probabley so instead we decided to use light from a phone but the light may turn off in the middle of a shot, so timing was a huge element in filming this shot. Also, we used fake blood for circuling and crossing out each victim which means we only had one chance to film each victim, but we did not pin the picture down probably so we fake blood got smudged but thanfully we were able to repair it.
I also really like the establishing shot as I feel it sets the story and the audience can see J the R hiding on the corner and the audience are able to see the costumes
Also, I really like when J the R and the victim are walking towards the camera and you can see the knife glint which was just by chance and it makes the audience notice the knife and sends a chill down your spine.
When we was filming the 'murder' scene we used a variety of camera angles such as high angle to make the victim seem vulnerable and powerless. We also shot the point of view of the knife which I personally thought was very creepy and scary.
Overall, I am very pleased with our re-filming and how well we worked as a time and all of our issues with filming before were solved as we used night mode.

Problems with our Film

When our group uploaded our film on to Imovie we were all disappointed with the outcome of the film due to many reasons but there also good shots such as the assault scene as there was a hand held shot which looked very effective and makes the audience tense. Our group was also very impressed with the acting as Michaela Carberry who played the victims and James Mansfield who played Jack the Ripper were very professional, took both their parts very seriously and got in to character.
Although we did have problems such as the lighting as the shots were all dark and you could hardly see the actors. The torches were not effective as there were still hardly any light and it looked really unrealistic as the street lamp light was high angle whilst the torches were low angle and they were both different light colours, brightness and they did not look effective. Whilst we re-shoot we will overcome this problem by using night mode on the camera which we were not aware of before, or we will point the camera on to the direction of the light.
Also, what we have learnt is that we all need to work as a team more as we left Emily to direct and we did not have any discussions about the camera shots, angles or how the shots looked as we rushed to get the finished product and we did not stick to our story board as well as should of therefore we did not have a variety of camera shots or angles to choice from. We also had a huge issue with the battery life on our cameras as we charged it the night before but the battery dies so quickly, to resolve these problems we will charge the night before and the morning of the day we are re-shooting.
Our group decided to re-shoot our two minute film as we felt that we were unprepared.
Next time we will talk about each shoot and see if we are all happy with it, we have all decided we will take turns to film and we will leave record on for a longer time and we will try different camera angles and shots to make there be a broader selection for editing and our two minute film. We also decided that if we had the same problems that we did with the first filming we will re-shoot for a third time but hopefully we will have good footage that we need. We will also be filming other scenes on different days encase we forget anything.

This is the re-shooting schedule:

Tuesday- Re-shooting:

5.00pm - 6.30pm: Filming in the Conference Room (Newspaper Scene)
6.50pm - 8.30pm: Filming Gentleman’s Road, Enfield Offices and Archway (Walking and Assault Scene)

Wednesday- Uploading and editing

First Filming Friday 6th November 2009

Friday after school our group decided to meet at 6pm at school till 9.30pm. We filmed the majority of our film but there were many problems such as we did not anticipate the heavy rain the whole time we were on set.

As we arrived on to set we all knew it was heavily raining and it was really cold but we decided to film knowing the conditions but we thought it may add to the thriller/horror effect of the film. However, with the rain we found it really hard and uncomfortable as Michaela’s hair was already wavy but throughout the film it got straighter as it got wet and it may have not looked correct due to the transition and we did not film in order of our storyboard.

We decided to film shoot the main section of our film first where Jack the Ripper is following his victim as they are walking through the alley. The alley had many street lamps that we wanted to include but we all thought that the lighting was well lit on the actors throughout the scene but through the camera you could hardly see anything, luckily we bought torches with us but then there were two different types of light as one as white and very bright which was the torches and the street lamp was yellow and bright. Therefore, we decided to use both the street lamps and the torches purely hoping it would look okay when we upload the filming.

We then decided to film the assault scene, I was very happy how well the actors dealt with the assault scene as there is implied 'rape' and they kept very professional. There was more lighting in this location in comparison to the alley as there was a lamp in front and back behind the archway. The only problem with the assault shot was we had to stay very close to the opening of the archway as there was only a bit of shelter. With the assault scene there were a few injuries such as Michaela bruising her wrist and James the male lead actor cutting his finger as we had to use a knife as a main prop in a part of the shot.

I feel that we defiantly picked a hard night to film due to the rain and everyone felt uncomfortable and we was prepared but not as much as we should of been.

I feel that the shot did go well but were all really nervous when it comes to uploading our film as we were not sure how it turned out. With editing and the clip adjustments our clips may off been okay. If it was not we would have to film the whole shot again to make sure that the transitions is good.