production diary
first i started writing my script, the first script i wrote wasn't good at all as it didn't fit the film type i was meant to be making, the script lines were too long for the cast to remember and the camera angles caused continuity errors with the type of film that i was meant to be filming as well as weather issues and scheduling and time management issues. the second script was slightly better and fixed some more continuity errors than the first but many issues came up when both the cast and the crew pointed out the mostly cons of my script and due to these and other errors and problem, the script had to be rewritten for a third time. the third script had to be scrapped before filming as i ran into some scheduling, location and time management issues as well as some personal issues that i ran into when trying to film using this script
the fourth script was cleaner, easier to film and more simple for the cast to follow as well as fitting in with the casts schedules and time management
Day 1- original idea
my original idea was set and meant to be filmed in a forest area to give it a similar setting to the blair witch project, of which its well known for, due to the weather of the first day and the lack of waterproofing for our equipment we had to postpone the filming until the weather got better, unfortunately i didn't get past more than a day of filming due to unsuitable weather conditions for filming, after waiting a couple of weeks and the weather not improving and running out of time so this idea had to be re-worked
Day 1- second idea
the first day of the filming for my second idea went well, it was in a location that both cast and crew could get to and it was an interior location so it meant weather conditions didn't matter, we got the first couple of scenes filmed on day one, during the hours of occupancy we had at the location, day one was mainly getting the cast and crew together, talking through the script and what i was wanting from the actors and the filming styles i had planned for this film, telling the actors how they would also be filming the scenes from there perspective to give it a realistic found footage style, i was wanting the same style of footage as blair witch where it doesn't feel overly produced or perfect, i wanted the filming to be raw and even told the actors that they can follow the flow of the script but they can improvise some lines and scenes to give it a more natural look as if they followed the script exactly it wouldn't seem like natural behaviour as i wanted it to feel as if they were filming it to document them hanging out as friends would.
Day 2- second idea
the second day with the introduction of props and how i was wanting the actors to bring them into the scenes naturally instead of the usually fabricated prop used for random movie plot points, for this idea i was planning to go in a supernatural paranormal direction with using an ouija board to summon a spirit, and getting the actors to film themselves using it, due to scheduling issues and some unprofessional-ism some of the actors didn't show up on time which meant waiting around to get started and losing valuable hours of occupancy for filming at the location we were using. By the time the missing actors had arrived we only had a couple of hours left to film for that day so we quickly got to work filming whatever we could. By the end of day 2 we had filmed the scene of the ouija board being introduced and the group setting up and using the ouija board to summon the spirit and progress the plot.
Day 3- second idea
the third day was not as productive as it could've been either as there was a lot to film and the days we could film in the chosen location was running out so i had to make sure i could get everything done in time i had use of the location and the deadline to get it filmed approaching fast, on the third day we ended up getting everything filmed although it was a bit rushed due to the time we had to finish up and be off the property of the location. more complications transpired as i ended up losing the footage, i lost the sd card with the footage on it and the scenes i had backups on had many different problems like the footage not working or the sound quality wasn't as good as it could've been, for one of the scenes the sound wasn't recorded at all due to some sort of glitch with the camera meaning i had to get either all the scenes re-shot or get as many scenes re-shot as possible on day 4 as it was the last day we could use the location property for our filming
Day 4- second idea
Day 4 was probably the busiest both the cast and crew had been throughout the entire past few days we'd been filming as we had to shoot the entire thing in the 8 hours we had left, whilst the product felt rushed, it was the best we could do with the time we had left, whilst rushed the footage we got was quite good and seemed on the same level as the original, everything except the final couple of scenes had been filmed, with the location no longer ours to use for filming and the busy schedule of the actors i had to come up with ways to get the last couple of scenes, i thought of re-writing the script and shooting an entirely new film in a public location to have a finished product but i didn't want to do that unless it was the only option left as while filming in a public place doesn't require permissions and limited hours of occupation it comes with other problems such as interruptions of the general public or the general public walking into our shot.
Days 5-6- second idea
these 2 days were spent trying to find the best possible locations to film while keeping the continuity of the shots we already had and somewhere we could film on short noticed without the production of the film being interrupted, i decided that the only place i could film without being interrupted was my own house, the actors availability seemed to be the only other issue that i was running into, i had finally worked out a day where the actors where free for a few hours to be able to film the last couple of scenes, unfortunately some personal problems came up which stopped me being able to film in my house for the last couple of scenes. while it means i would have to try and come up with a new fresh idea and write a script for it in a new public location to be able to produce some sort of product and it would take up time i was running very short on, it was the only other option i had left.
Day 1- the final product
the first day was spent coming up with different ideas for a new type of found footage horror idea in a public place, i decided the best place for filming was the nearest college and i had to come up with the idea and a script based around that location, after spending the day coming up with ideas i came up with the brand new idea and a way i can film it, i got to writing the script which wasn't perfect but it was as good as i could make it with the very limited time i had left to be able to write it and film it
Day 2- the final product
with the script written i sent it to the actors so they could read it and decide if the character types fitted them well enough and if the location worked in terms of them being able to travel there both easily and consistently, i decided to set the location inside the college in 2 parts of the college that were the least use as it meant i could keep the locations as unused as possible to keep interruptions to a minimum, with the locations set and the script sent off to the actors i was ready for the following day to start filming what would hopefully be the final day of filming and i was hoping i wouldn't run into anymore problems when filming or after filming as i kept thinking that i the footage would be recorded with seemingly no issues and then i would run into problems like the first time
Day 3- the final product
on the third day of making the idea and script and the first day of filming for the final product we got the first couple of scenes done as it took time to be able to have the area both unused and make sure no one would walk into either our shot or our production area so we could get as many shots done without interruption, at the end of the first day of filming we got the first 3 shots finished, while seemingly improvised and simple looking, it actually took a while to get each shot correct and make it look and sound as natural as possible as i want it to feel like the people in the film weren't acting, like they weren't being filmed for this project, so it took a lot more takes to get right than some people would believe by looking at the footage.
Day 4- the final product
Day 4 was some of the longer scenes, while all shots were pretty short and snappy, a couple of them were long enough to cause some issues and meant we had to do multiple retakes, some of the lines included some conversations that were longer than others meaning the actors that were available had problems remembering that many lines in a row so we had to come up with ways around that, at first i just had them try to remember the lines but because of the limited time i had left i didn't have a couple of days to wait for them to memorise and practice their lines, so after 4 or 5 takes of them getting the lines wrong or forgetting the directions or what line was next i decided to use the camera angles chosen to my advantage by having those whose voices were in the shot but their faces weren't could refer to the script to be able to deliver the lines and directions perfectly, it still took a couple of retakes as it meant one person couldn't read from a script but i was getting more shots completed in a shorter amount of time
Day- 5 the final project
Day 5 was the final day of filming as i had to start the post production and needed to leave plenty of time to be able to make my product as good as it can be, it took a few hours but we filmed everything we needed to using the same method as day 4, day 5 was the smoothest day for filming out of all of them as we got everything we needed without any problems, with the last piece of footage filmed i was ready to start the post production stage.
throughout the different days and refilms I had used loads of different locations for my filming. the location i used was in a college, i used an empty classroom and an empty hallway and stuck to those two locations as it meant i knew that it would work out in terms of availability and continuity when filming, it also made the locations easy to remember and get to as they were next to each other, we mainly just used the hallways for most of the scenes but we did use the unused classroom for some of the opening scenes, we used the same hallway for most shots which meant when script writing i ran into problems of how can the actors do certain scenes in such a limited amount of space so i wrote a script where the shots were apart at multiple points of a day, the actors characters were filming between classes, the limited space meant i had to be more creative on how i can make limited space work while being on a very limited filming schedule
Comments
Post a Comment