The filming process day 1 (part 4)

Date: Wednesday 22nd November 2017
Time: 15:50pm-16:00pm
Moments filmed: Medical
Personnel needed: Matthew Herriott (Camera/director), Evie Brookes-Payne (Producer/Mya Brown), Kim Wright (Dr Goodwin)
Props: None
Equipment: Camera, Tripod

The final shot of the day would be the medical shot, and this was by far the simplest of all the shots to get filmed as it only lasts about 6 seconds. We were quickly able to get this one filmed but there were more learns to be gained here than from any other shot today:

1. Both teams (myself as the director, and the cast) need to make sure that the other is ready before we initiate a shot. Looking back at the footage of the attempts here, I saw that in one of them I had accidentally started filming AFTER they had started performing meaning that the first few seconds were invalid (we did 4 takes though so there was plenty to choose from).

2. Although DR Goodwin can be heard in the background in this shot, she is not actually seen on-screen. Originally, we placed K. Wright (DR Goodwin) behind the camera so that she would not get in the way of the camera but this meant that she could not be heard quite as well as we would have liked. This improved once she had been moved around to be in front of the camera - though remained out of shot because the camera was focused on Evie (Mya Brown). What we needed to remember here is that we should position people so that they are where they need to be in order for them to be seen/heard in the way that we need them to be.



The filming process day 1 (part 3)

Date: Wednesday 22nd November 2017
Time: 15:30pm-15:50pm
Moments filmed: Leaving time
Personnel needed: Matthew Herriott (Camera/director), Evie Brookes-Payne (Producer/Mya Brown), Emma Hillier (Silvia Brown), Kim Wright (Dr Goodwin)
Props: Suitcase
Equipment: Camera, Tripod

As the first moment to film that required the use of some of the adult cast members, we felt that the goodbye sequence was a good one to start with. Being later in the day, and a very windy day it was, the conditions made filming here more challenging than the panic shot earlier in the day had been. Unfortunately, while we were able to work our way around it, this made one of our attempts unusable but that didn't create too much of an issue. Given that, typically as young people we were used to being the ones taking instructions, we were working with adults for the filming of this moment of the trailer that made it challenging to begin with. Neverthless we were able to get over that and got what we wanted to filmed.

One thing I realised for future filming sessions is, although it didn't create too much of a problem for this shot, that we would have to be careful in making sure that when a shot had run its course that the cast members didn't immediately look to me to see that they had done a good job/to find out what needed doing next. 

The filming process day 1 (part 2)

Date: Wednesday 22nd November 2017
Time: 11:45am-12:20pm
Moments filmed: Rage
Personnel needed: Matthew Herriott (Camera/director), Evie Brookes-Payne (Producer/Mya Brown)
Props: None
Equipment: Camera, Tripod

As what would potentially be one of the most challenging shots to film, as well as the fact that the trailer will cut straight from panic into this moment so that the audience can get an idea of just how badly affected Mya has been by her traumatic past, we decided to go for rage next. The reason as to why this moment was going to be so complicated was due to the fact that we were going to have to completely reset the desk with every attempt of the second shot so that the desk doesn't create a continuity error - the reason for this being because in this moment Mya swipes all of her stuff away when she can't focus on the work she is trying to do.

In working out how exactly we were going to present rage was a difficult task because Evie and I disagreed on what exactly we wanted the second shot to look like. She believed that the best thing to do would be to have Mya storm out of shot but I thought it would be better to have her storm out through the door (whether that was to leave the building entirely or just to escape from where she was presently is up for debate because it could be interpreted either way, but the point was that she couldn't focus/couldn't cope). In the end we went with my suggestion because that is more typical of shots in which the character is seen to storm away as well as the fact that it gives a better definintion for where she has gone and how far we have to follow her with the camera.

An important consideration that we picked up from filming these shots (although that was not a problem here due to the fact that we're going to be taking the audio out) is that we need to be careful of what constitues the background audio - we need to make sure that any unwanted sound is filtered out.

Ultimately, fun as this moment was to film, it was also good to get it out the way because of how challenging and time consuming it was and knowing that we had this one done was a real relief.

The filming process day 1 (part 1)

Date: Wednesday 22nd November 2017
Time: 11:00am-11:30am
Moments filmed: Panic
Personnel needed: Matthew Herriott (Camera/director), Evie Brookes-Payne (Producer/Mya Brown)
Props: None
Equipment: Camera, Tripod

The shot that we decided to start with would be the panic scene, seeing as it was one of the more complicated shots to put together due to the fact that we needed to work out how exactly we could represent somebody visibly panicking. Finding a location was not too difficult as any standard road/street would do - as long as we did not have any cars coming along the road during the shot because we wanted to make it clear that Mya was freaking out when she heard an ambulance sound (that we could edit in later) as opposed to the car driving past. Also, as it is a trailer that we are working on putting together, we needed to make sure that this moment does not drag on too long so that we have time to fit everything in the 2-3 minute sequence of events, so working out how far away Mya needed to be as well as how far she needed to walk before freaking out was another consideration that needed to be made. In terms of working out how to make Mya look like she was panicking we decided to go with shaking hands, as this got through what we were trying to suggst. This is also where we made a crucial change to this scene: as opposed to what we were going to do originally - to do this as two shots cutting from the initial reaction to a shot of Mya's hand shaking - we decided that once Mya reacts we should have the camera zoom in on her hand so that it is more obvious whose hand it is that is shaking.

One of the biggest learns here was that of the weather, with it being in the later end of the year the wind (and also the rain) have the potential to cause problems both with communication and with actual recording if the dialogue should end up being distorted.

Putting the shot together in the end took us about half an hour, partly because it took a little while for us to work out the optimum walking distance and representation of a panicked state of mind, and partly in waiting for the road to be clear.

Emailing the Cast

Once the plans had been put together for what we wanted the trailer to look like it was time to bring in the actors/actresses that we would need to perform in the trailer.

Constructing and Gathering the props

As part of preparing to film we needed to make sure that props and costumes were in place so that we were ready to film.

Scouting out locations

Though at the time we had had a rough idea of what kind of locations we wanted to use for the various moments within the film trailer we needed to find physical, real world locations in which our vision for the trailer could come to life - especially given the fact that we did not have any kind of large scale filming studio in which one could construct all the various sets that they desired ripe from their imagination. This meant that we had the job of location scouting for possible filming sites for which we needed a total of about 12 different locations - which is small for your typical film trailer but for us needed some serious searching given the fact that it would be difficult (though not impossible) to look too far affield (aka outside of Stafford).

Our Audience

As part of planning our film trailer one of the things that we were going to have to consider was who we wanted our audience to be so that we could better plan who to target with the various areas of the marketing campaign.


The first part we were going to have to consider was what type of narrative we were trying to tell. By having a female protagonist who by means of tragic circumstance is drawn into a corrupt and secretive institution hiding a secret agenda behind a mask of helping those suffering with poor mental health issues, we felt that it was in a way similar to the likes of films such as 'The Hunger Games' or 'Divergent' series of films - although the fact that the film is not drawn from a successful trilogy of books would mean that we would have to start from scratch in terms of attracting a fan base to flock to the cinema seats. Therefore, this first factor in deciding who the market would be for our marketing campaign would be to target it at the young adult audience.


The other half of determining the target audience was the factor of film genre. As a part of the Sci-Fi Thriller genre ofn films, our film is more likely to attract a slightly more mature and intelligent audience as the film would be engineered in a more mature and less light-hearted format.

The Trailer Script

Once we had planned what we wanted to happen with both the storyboard and the shot list it was time to have a look at what we wanted each moment to look like on a deeper level as well as planning what was going to be said - because although we knew who was going to be talking in each scene we hadn't yet worked out what exactly they were going to say. This made it neccesary to write a script for our trailer and thus one has been written.
Follow the link below to have a look at what we were able to produce:
Film Script

The Shot List

Once we had drawn up our shot list, it was time to consider what we wanted our trailer to look like in greater depth and this meant looking at it shot by shot to construct a shot list.

The Synopsis

Film title: Subject 984

Genre: Science-Fiction/Thriller

Synopsis:

Plagued by past experiences, Mya Brown (Evie Brookes-Payne) suffers from a number of mental health issues. Full of worry, and as a last resort, her mother (E.Hillier) sends her to the Trory Anwir Institution of Mental Health, where she befriends Christopher (Matthew Herriott). Surrounded by caring and understanding people, everything appears to be taking a turn for the better. But, after a series of unexplained medical tests and the discovery of a dark secret, she starts to realise that everything isn't quite as it first appeared...

Constructing the Storyboard

Once the research was completed we could begin to work on the plan for what we wanted our trailer to look like. For this, we needed a synopsis and a storyboard. At present we do not have a title for the film nor do we have any names for the characters, but we decided that at this stage specifics like that were not the most important thing - what should come before who. (For details on what is actually going on, see the synopsis).

Here is what our storyboard looks like:

 After the company titles having finished opening the trailer, the audience is first introduced to the mother and her daughter. We see pictures on the wall of them as a family. The main communication point here is the idea of the daughter being safe when she is with her mother. The dialogue opens with the mother talking to her daughter introducing the idea of her needing to go to a mental health care facility.

Whilst the mother's speech remains constant for the first third to half of the trailer (depending on the exact duration of the various flashbacks that we want to show here), the trailer then moves to show a series of flashbacks, from the daughter talking to her therapist to her having a mental breakdown when she comes into contact with a vehicle.

The trailer cuts back to where it started: in the living room. We see the mother show her daughter a leaflet about the mental health care centre where, seeing as her therapist had not succeeded in getting through to her, she will be sent to receive proper treatment for her PTSD. The trailer will transition through the leaflet to a teary goodbye scene at the care centre, and here the mother's dialogue will end - there will be strong inference in this moment that the daughter is leaving her mother behind, thus the safety felt at the beginning will no longer be there to protect her.

The second 'half' of the trailer shows the daughter inside the care centre. It opens the care centre showing her be introduced to someone else who has just been introduced to the centre. While we want their initial meet to be awkward as both of them are struggling mentally, they manage to get along. Within this sequence of them together, they come across a door that denies them entry, making the daughter slightly suspicious. It then cuts to a scene in a medical bay, here we see the daughter on a hospital bed  - it is implied that she is receiving medical tests and that since arriving this has been somewhat frequent, enough to at least make her suspicious.

The trailer cuts back now to the room whose door is titled 'no entry', though this time the daughter is without her friend. We see her walk through the door this time. Whilst inside, she is seen to investigate a filing cabinet and pull different files out. Whilst we do not learn what she discovers there, we know that whatever it is is enough to scare her. She runs out of the room, but is clumsy enough to leave a telltale sign that someone has been in there.

The trailer then cuts to her trying to explain the mysterious situation to her friend - though we do not hear what she has discovered, we learn enough that they think something is wrong. (Whilst a change of clothes implies that this scene is later on) we then see the two of them making a move to try and leave the healthcare centre. When they come into contact with one of the scientists, the two of them try to run away. We do not, however, see how this scene plays out. The trailer ends here, cutting to the film title and the release date.

Film website initial plan

After reviewing a selection of different film websites, we could now have a look at what we wanted our own film website to look like.