Production Log 9

What have been your issues for production this week?
What have you taken in to account peer feedback?
What decisions did you make about these issues and why?

This week me and Joe were putting together the laundry scenes with the others that we had already filmed. This was easier than having to do the first ones as all we had to do was put them where they needed to go. When we put together all of the shots we realised that it didn't make as much sense as what we thought it did when we was putting it together. The cuts were too rapid so we had to find a solution. We ended up putting in a fade to black transition each time it went from the laundry to Adriana's travel to work. We didn't put them when going from Adriana to the workplace and we thought that it would be more affective as we thought it showed whats going on at the same time as her journey and how each of the characters feel. The feedback that we got from everyone that watched our draft, we took to improve it, which made it a lot better, such as eye contact with the camera when Adriana is running down the stairs and also adjusted the sound completely so that it sounded a lot better. Me and Joe thought that the hardest thing was finding suitable music and we searched online trying to see what suited it best. We changed from fast and upbeat music to calm piano playing, just to make sure we would make the right decision. In the end we chose a piano song and think it suited everything, adding suspense. 
Putting the graphics on at the end was quite difficult as I had done it before, so I had to learn to do it properly. I think that they looked really good at the end as they ran smoothly and I think that the credits appearred at the right time, and also because they didn't stand out too much, which is how they are meant to be in a British Social Realist film.

Production Log 8

What have been the issues for your production/pro production this week?
What decisions did you make about these decisions and why?

This week me and Joe edited the work we had filmed in week seven for our first draft. We knew that it wasn't going to be great as we hadn't filmed at all locations and therefore knew that it wasn't going to make sense to other people watching it. This is because the other location was the one we wanted to cut from one character to the other to show what is going on at the same time, so it made the final draft have loads of jumps in between them. We got feedback from other people in our group, but we made them aware of why it wouldn't make sense to them. They gave us feedback on what to improve on, things like eye contact with the camera and bad continuity. When putting the shots together, We did find it quite difficult as we took many shots of the same shot and we had to decide which we thought was better and it was hard to come to some decisions. This was mainly because the shots had to flow well, so even though some of the shots we put in weren't the best ones we had, we used them purely because it made the work flow better and make sense. At this time we didn't have any sound on it, so we could hear all of the cuts in between. At the time we didn't really have time to do all of that however the final piece will have the sound running completely smooth with no obvious cuts. I think me and Joe done reasonably well and didn't rush things but also got straight to the point.
We also changed our title name to 'Drained,' this was because we thought that the title was a bit too long. The meaning of this is linked with the washing machines in the laundry, and the main menaing is because the main characters life is slowly getting worse and she is beginning to get drained out with everything and feels no hope in anything.

Call Sheet 3

Production Log 7

What have been the key issues for your production/post production this week?
What decisions did you make about the issues and why?

This week me and Joe began to film our opening sequence. The first location was around Chadwell Heath. This was where we showed my routine to the workplace. We filmed near train rails and when filming made sure that we got a train going past me in the background, just because we thought it would make the shot more affective. This took a while to do as Joe was doing this handheld and we had to do it a few times to get it perfect as it was a bit shaky at times. Also on this day, we filmed me getting on the bus. We done this twice as we wanted two shots, one of the buses coming towards us and one of me getting on the bus. This didn't work out very well the first time round as the shots didn't seem to flow as we stopped filming before the bus even stopped so there was a big jump as the next shot was me suddenly getting on the bus. However we done this again and it was fine. The next day we filmed at out second location which was in a house to get the shots that we needed for that part of the script. We done all the shots we could in that space of time and it took a while to do. We found it difficult to do some of the shots we planned on doing as they were at awkward angles as the bedroom we filmed in was quite small. As we filmed while it was still light outside it was bright in the rooms we were filming in and we had to find ways to make them darker. The bathroom was the brightest so we ended up putting up a towel on the window so it got darker. As in one of the shots we were filming in the reflection of the mirror, we could see the towel over the window so it was quite good for our mise-en-scene. This shot was also slightly difficult to do as we had to try and do it so the camera wasn't in the reflection and also have me fixing my hair still. I found this was one the difficult parts when it came to continuity as my hair and hands needed to be in the same position. Overall considering it was the first day of filming I think we done quite well.

Draft

This is mine and Joe's draft for our opening sequence. So far we have only filmed at one location so where it jumps from one shot to another that is where the things at the other location will be happening.