Location of Filming
Vanished is filmed at Chelsea Park Gardens in London, Chelsea. This area is associated with wealth which helps elaborate where the characters come from and potentially a reason for the girl to get kidnapped.
Monday, 24 March 2014
Sunday, 23 March 2014
Equipment and technology (opening sequence)
1. Canon eos 550d
2. Canon legria hf g10
3. Hama Traveller Compact Pro Tripod
4. RODE VideoMic
5. Final Cut Pro X
6. Shoulder mount
Why I chose Final Cut Pro (opening sequence)
I chose Final Cut Pro to edit with because it looked more professional to edit with compared to other ways such as imovie which was not detailed enough. This is because the quality of the images were much more professional and it had more ways of editing.
I also found that when I was editing with Final Cut it had more fonts that I could personalise and better effects, this was extremely useful when I was editing my Opening sequence because there is a lot of action in my film and Final Cut Pro let me heighten the action the way I wanted e.g. I could use a flashing effect which added tension and drama which made it look much more professional whilst imovie did not have these effects, which you could clearly see in the difference of my opening sequence and preliminary task.
Final Cut Pro allows you to work with several different channels of audio, and mix those channels any way you choose. The audio tools in Final Cut Pro really give you the flexibility to do whatever your heart desires within the program. We don't always shoot our video in the ideal conditions. Final Cut Pro allows you to easily correct the color of your video. You can also add effect to your video to give it a different look entirely. These aren't your traditional dissolves and fades. Final Cut Pro gives you the ability to make some magnificent transitions that you can not make in any other video editing program.
Finally what I found very useful was that when I was choosing what shots and camera angles I wanted I didn't have to keep deleting them from the bar if they were the wrong length or had the wrong lighting, I could elongate the clip and change things such as the lighting immediately and efficiently
I also found that when I was editing with Final Cut it had more fonts that I could personalise and better effects, this was extremely useful when I was editing my Opening sequence because there is a lot of action in my film and Final Cut Pro let me heighten the action the way I wanted e.g. I could use a flashing effect which added tension and drama which made it look much more professional whilst imovie did not have these effects, which you could clearly see in the difference of my opening sequence and preliminary task.
Final Cut Pro allows you to work with several different channels of audio, and mix those channels any way you choose. The audio tools in Final Cut Pro really give you the flexibility to do whatever your heart desires within the program. We don't always shoot our video in the ideal conditions. Final Cut Pro allows you to easily correct the color of your video. You can also add effect to your video to give it a different look entirely. These aren't your traditional dissolves and fades. Final Cut Pro gives you the ability to make some magnificent transitions that you can not make in any other video editing program.
Finally what I found very useful was that when I was choosing what shots and camera angles I wanted I didn't have to keep deleting them from the bar if they were the wrong length or had the wrong lighting, I could elongate the clip and change things such as the lighting immediately and efficiently
Issues on shoot (Opening Sequence)
When shooting my opening sequence i encountered some problems which i had anticipated and some that i did not expect.
My opening sequence involved the kidnap of a young girl which was filmed outside thus leading to some problems that I anticipated. The first problem that i encountered was noise from the main road. Because we shot outside we did not have the benefit of a set, to avoid too much sound coming from the road and busses driving past I had to wait till the roads seemed clear. I filmed in the late morning which meant i could avoid to much disturbing sounds as it was on a weekend on sunday when people would be sleeping.
The second anticipated problem was where to shoot my high angle shots. I included a high angle shot because it would add drama as it would show the daughter being kidnapped. Having a high angle shot will make the audience feel further away and thus feeling more helpless. I used my house to shoot as i filmed on my road. I tried shooting from various windows but some were too low and some didn't give me the range of movement i needed to execute my pan like I wanted. Eventually i went to the top of the house and found a window that opened fully and even had a ledge which enabled to film my shot with a range of movements. The fact that there was a ledge helped me use a tripod which helped with the quality of the shot as the ground level shots were filmed with a tripod and shoulder mount, the ledge enabled me to use a tripod to film the high angle shots which guaranteed continuity in the quality and steadiness of my shots.
Nevertheless, there was also some issues which arose just before my filming of my opening sequence which i hadn't anticipated. For instance it started to rain shortly before i starting filming. This meant that everyone needed to be provided with waterproof clothing on the shoot, this included umbrellas for the actors, crew and equipment, between each shots we had warm drinks and warm clothes for everyone which took time to prepare. The rain also meant that the lighting of the film was different and that the sound of rain was an issue as it harder to hear the actors speak. To resolve this we had to ask the actors to speak louder. However i realised that the rain i could take the rain into my advantage by using it to make the film seem sadder and more sinister as rain adds a more depressing and somber tone to the film. The fact that we had to give the actors umbrellas to shelter them from the rain limited me from using a variety of camera angles as they were in the way, although this was a problem i tried to incorporate this into my opening sequence my deliberating keeping the mother and her friend over shadowed by the umbrellas in most shots, giving the opening sequence a similar tone to the girl in Schlinders list as the girl is seen but not the adults and the mies en scene of her school uniform accentuates her innocence. The first time you get a clear shot of the mother and friends faces is when they are running towards the girl who has just been kidnapped which i hope increase the impact of that shot.
Finally the cannon legria hf g10 camera was unexpectedly shooting in the tone sepia. We only found this out once downloading the rushes onto the laptop when the cast had gone home. This made it very challenging to colour coordinate it with the other canon eos 550d as that was filmed in a normal colour. Which resulted in hours of colour coordinating.
My opening sequence involved the kidnap of a young girl which was filmed outside thus leading to some problems that I anticipated. The first problem that i encountered was noise from the main road. Because we shot outside we did not have the benefit of a set, to avoid too much sound coming from the road and busses driving past I had to wait till the roads seemed clear. I filmed in the late morning which meant i could avoid to much disturbing sounds as it was on a weekend on sunday when people would be sleeping.
The second anticipated problem was where to shoot my high angle shots. I included a high angle shot because it would add drama as it would show the daughter being kidnapped. Having a high angle shot will make the audience feel further away and thus feeling more helpless. I used my house to shoot as i filmed on my road. I tried shooting from various windows but some were too low and some didn't give me the range of movement i needed to execute my pan like I wanted. Eventually i went to the top of the house and found a window that opened fully and even had a ledge which enabled to film my shot with a range of movements. The fact that there was a ledge helped me use a tripod which helped with the quality of the shot as the ground level shots were filmed with a tripod and shoulder mount, the ledge enabled me to use a tripod to film the high angle shots which guaranteed continuity in the quality and steadiness of my shots.
Nevertheless, there was also some issues which arose just before my filming of my opening sequence which i hadn't anticipated. For instance it started to rain shortly before i starting filming. This meant that everyone needed to be provided with waterproof clothing on the shoot, this included umbrellas for the actors, crew and equipment, between each shots we had warm drinks and warm clothes for everyone which took time to prepare. The rain also meant that the lighting of the film was different and that the sound of rain was an issue as it harder to hear the actors speak. To resolve this we had to ask the actors to speak louder. However i realised that the rain i could take the rain into my advantage by using it to make the film seem sadder and more sinister as rain adds a more depressing and somber tone to the film. The fact that we had to give the actors umbrellas to shelter them from the rain limited me from using a variety of camera angles as they were in the way, although this was a problem i tried to incorporate this into my opening sequence my deliberating keeping the mother and her friend over shadowed by the umbrellas in most shots, giving the opening sequence a similar tone to the girl in Schlinders list as the girl is seen but not the adults and the mies en scene of her school uniform accentuates her innocence. The first time you get a clear shot of the mother and friends faces is when they are running towards the girl who has just been kidnapped which i hope increase the impact of that shot.
Finally the cannon legria hf g10 camera was unexpectedly shooting in the tone sepia. We only found this out once downloading the rushes onto the laptop when the cast had gone home. This made it very challenging to colour coordinate it with the other canon eos 550d as that was filmed in a normal colour. Which resulted in hours of colour coordinating.
Soundtrack (opening sequence)
I looked at multiple options for the sad song i was going to use, when the girl gets kidnapped. I look at several opening sequences and multiple films to get inspired. I eventually found five possible songs to used and then narrowed it to 3: "A very sad song for broken hearts", "very sad piano song" and "very sad piano and violin song" I eventually chose "A very sad song for broken hearts" because I thought that the use of the piano and the keys used added a huge amount of drama which makes it very easy to imagine a girl getting kidnapped. The song is also extremely sad and will really make the audience think which is what i'd like the song to do.
Friday, 7 March 2014
Shot list for opening sequence
Shot List
These are the shots i’m going to use in my opening sequence.
Main Shots:
- Match on action
- Shot/ reverse shot
- 180 Degree rule
Other shots:
- Over the shoulder shot
- Extreme long shot
- Long shot
- Mid shot
- Pan
- Tracking shot
- Close up
- Hight to low angle shot
- Low to high angle shot
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