Main Task 3 - (Construction)

PRE-FILMING

Initially, our first task was to construct a synopsis (Task 2.1) for our main task; of the synopsis we would storyboard and film the opening sequence. In the process of creating a film there will inevitably be aspects of the production that change - this maybe in relation to the script, location and even the technologies used. In this instants, it was our synopsis. We initially wanted our protagonist to discover the body and for the police to arrive and chase him. However, with consideration we realized this plot would not have made sense. This is because of a number of reasons:
- Someone would have had to already discovered the body to alert the police.

- Continuing from the first bullet point the Police would not have reacted in that way. Our understanding dictates that the murderer would have been long gone by the time the police arrived.

Baring these points in mind we adapted our synopsis so that it made sense to the audience. Instead of being chased by the police, our protagonist would be chased by the murderer themselves. After committing the murder, the antagonists go off in search of a mop and bucket to clean up the murder scene - this is where the protagonist discovers the body. On their return with the mop and bucket they discover the protagonist inspecting the body looking for a pulse. They see he is covered in blood and realize they he's made contact with the body and the weapon.

From here we constructed our storyboard which contained 22 shots with performance directions, camera movements and camera shots. We would use this as a basis and resource for the shooting of our sequence.

FILMING

With the cameras and tripod collected we were given a 2 week period in which to shoot our sequence. We initially chose a large open classroom to record our film on a corridor at our school. Obviously, the classroom would be in regular use so we had a short time period in which to record our sequence. Another problem encountered was that even after school the classroom we chose was being used by teachers for meetings. We had no choice but to use an alternative classroom which had less space. This caused problems when setting up tripods; this led to extreme angles when shooting - both high and low.
Unfortunately early in our production we lost one member of our group so we were left with two people including myself - this caused difficulties in that we needed four people to act and one person to operate the camera. With persuasion we were able to recruit 3 people for one evenings shooting; this, again, brought problems in relation to time. We had one person who needed to leave as soon as possible so we had added pressure of filming quickly which led to a series of spoiled clips meaning we needed to re shoot which meant more time.

EDITING

With the shooting period over we then had to edit our sequence. This ran relatively smoothly; however, we had issues with sound. We had little success with creating a musical score on Garage Band. Through our knowledge of film we knew that in times of tension the musical score mirrors the emotions and atmosphere of the sequence - furthermore the musical score creates an atmosphere to compliment the sequence. In our group we had one pianist so rather than hassling over Garage Band we recorded with an MP3 recorder a short improvisation that created tension at the points in the sequence we desired. We were happy with the backing music, yet further problems arose as the volume that the music was played, even at maximum, was still relatively quiet - unfortunately we were unable to rectify this problem before our exhibition.
We set out in our storyboard that we wanted short flashes to emphasize the fact that the protagonist had left his DNA on the weapon and body. We were able to replicate this in our editing phase and this worked out relatively well. When receiving feedback from the class they relayed that it was affective and that as audience they understood the significance of the flash and what it represented.