For A Handful Of Sweets (Draft #1)

And here is the finished video. We will show this to our Media class and teacher, and will make changes to it based on the feedback we receive from them.

Legal Problems During Filming

During our car scene and introduction we were stopped by armed police.

The Barracks are just behind the garages pictured here, where we drive our car into.

This was due to the army barracks being so close to our location.

As our characters are three bank robbers who speed in a car to their location while wearing their masks, the local authorities received a complaint from the barracks of "suspicious behaviour".

Fortunately the officer who stopped us was understanding enough to let us carry on, but it was a reminder that we should be wary of our surroundings and the occupants of the areas we film in.

The Car Cam

Several takes into filming the opening sequence we came across a small issue while inside the car. All the shots were far too shaky due to the bumpy road which leads up to the location. We came up with a idea to use some strong black tape to safely secure the camera onto the tripod which was balanced outside an open window.

Here we are securing the camera to the car

This allowed us to get an interesting two shot that can be observed, in a similar manner, in professional films also.

Scene from '2 Guns'

Scene from 'Angriest Man'

Foley Effects

We had the idea to create some of our own natural foley effects using a tangerine. This was going to be used for the head stomping scene where the chicken uses the baseball bat to pummel the pigs head into a pool of blood. The overall sound that was obtain for wasn't as successful as we imagine. There wasn't enough depth and punch to the sound. Implementing additional sounds found within our editing software ontop did however create a very convincing sound.

Making our own Fake Blood

The ingredients

To make our fake blood we used water, honey, coco powder and red food colouring.

For big puddles on the floor we used the home made blood and for the blood on the shirts we used the pre made bottles that we bought off Amazon. The reason for this was because when we applied the home made fake blood to our shirts it's colour completely fades out giving a very unconvincing blood stained shirt. The pre made blood kept its rich red colour over time when applied to the shirts.

Fake blood available on Amazon

Filming this Weekend (Recap)

As Jack was unavailable this weekend, we recasted the cole of Pig and decided on Bradley who also does Media and therefore is familiar with filming/acting etc.

Bradley, who we casted as Pig

In a nutshell, the filming went well and we got through the whole shot list before the sun went down. This meant that we only had to film on Saturday, leaving Sunday free for editing.

This time we were also far more successful with the fake blood, which we made ourselves. Oli talks about this in more depth in this post.

We also made some foley effects (see this post here) and found the time to take a few pictures for the ancillaries.

I am now in the process of editing the footage – creating a rough cut – to present to the others and our teacher tomorrow.

Depending on the feedback we will receive we might have to reshoot a few things, but overall everyone has a good feeling about the footage we recorded yesterday.

Shotlist for 29–30/12/14

Here is the updated shortlist for the filming this weekend. The shots marked in yellow are shots that we have done before but need to reshoot, hence the exact lengths so that they will fit in with the rest of the footage.

The shots marked in blue are new shots. We will have to be more careful and plan in more time for those as we haven't done them before and therefore don't kniw exactly how best to film them.

Updated Storyboards

As we went along with the test filming, we realised that the storyboards we had produced thus far weren't detailed enough to work with.

Because of this I created a new set of storyboards, detailing the exact actions taking place in the shot.

As I am the cameraman this also has the advantage that I know exactly what I was imagining when drawing the sketches which should make it easier for me to follow the instructions.

Choosing the right sweets 2

After using both Ferrero Roches and Qulity Streets in our shoots we decided to use the latter for the final film. The reasons for this are:

• They are cheaper so we can buy more of them for the same price
• They are colourful which, unlike the Ferreros, clearly sets them apart from 'real' loot like money or gold

Choosing the right sweets

In our first shoot we used Quality Street. In ours second shoot we used Ferrero Rocher. The biggest concern that we have with chocolate that looks aesthetically pleasing is the cost. Obviously this will go into the overall budget, however this limits the amount we use, so therefore the amount of chocolate we use is going to be limited.

We didn't really want this to affect us, so we decided it was a good idea to take a look online, compare, contrast and split the budget to purchase the sweets.

Timeline of Opening Scene

Update on Movie Title

On the way to filming we were discussing what we could name our film as we didn't have a definite idea on what we could call it. We thought about relating it to sweets, as well as relating it to the western film trilogy "A Fistful Of Dollars".

We put both of the ideas together and as a group came up with:

'A Handful Of Sweets'

That obviously worked better than the film name generator that I used earlier.

First Ideas for Music

Our introduction to the film begins with a driving scene. I wondered if there was any music that'd be appropriate for this, and while watching Kill Bill I figured that "Battle Without Honour Or Humanity" would be a good choice. The song itself compliments the scene here because it is energetic in pace and tone, reflecting the epicness of the robbers walking away.

The montage of our robbers splitting up and messing around with the loot really worked with "Money" by Pink Floyd. The lyrics are parallel to the storyline "share it, fair it, don't take a slice of my pie". We will probably work a little remix with one of our actors who has experience with Music, as well as the school's Music Tech teacher. The album that "Money" was released in also deals with greed, which relates to our storyline too. Possible intertextuality? 

We will download some generic royalty/copyright free music that has a western theme to it for our Mexican Standoff later on in the film. If we have the time we may make our own.

Film Titles

We are finding it quite hard to name our movie. There are so many things that we could call it, so I suggested to Adrian and Oli while we were in our Media lesson to look for a movie name generator.

We started with a generic movie name generator, suffice to say it wasn't really great.

As you can see, there wasn't much we could take from this..

At least this one had some sort of action-thriller type name to it?

We found an action-movie name generator that conjures out names slightly reminiscent to Jean-Claude Van Damme movies during his B-Movie stint. These ones got closer to our film in terms of naming and actually gave us some ideas.

I suppose the fact that the Pig gets shot to death
and his head squashed by the Chicken's
boot is some pretty sudden overkill.

The Horse is fatally assassinated by the Pig

All four robbers are punished by fate?

I liked this one the best. It makes it sound
like the three robbers that are left to fight
in the standoff are leading themselves to their
own execution.

Now obviously we aren't going to take the film names word for word, but I guess it gave us some food for thought while being mildly entertaining to see what the machine would generate for us.

Possible Movie Titles:

• 1 down, 3 to go
• Fool's Gold
• Sl4ughter

Sl4ughter is another example of a film that has inspired our work. It was mainly from a poster from the film "Seven", stylised as "Se7en" which influenced us enough to consider it.

Filming Prep

In Preparation for filming on Sunday we wanted to meet up the day before to go through a some of the key shots, buy the remaining props ( 3 mugs, 1 shower curtain to soften the light, watermelons) and just to get our minds ready for the big day ahead.

Audience Feedback

Together with our new teacher we discussed our coursework, and she have the following feedback:

- Lack of fluidity in the editing which was mainly due to the lack of footage.
- The camerawork was great. We had a variety of shots and movement, unusual as well as conventional.

- At first, we felt the lighting was a major problem in our footage. However, our teacher reassured us that the lighting was appropriate
- Generally speaking, the shots were not fluid.
- There were disputes over the ending. Some of them we felt were cop-outs, others did not match what we wanted the audience to feel. This is explained in the "Ending" post.

Therefore, we will change/do the following things to improve our work (by by 19/12/14):
- Reshoot the shots that we feel need work on.

- Apply ourselves more to the art of editing. It is a complicated process that requires a lot of time and effort.

- Keep the lighting consistent.

- Make sure we keep the camerawork as fluid as it was before, and have a variety of shots that hit the criteria.

Ending Check

Today I asked my previous Media teacher, Mr Titheridge for advice on an ending because as a group we were unsure about what we could do for it. There were so many different directions that we could take it in we were not sure about what we thought was fitting.

What he suggested regarding endings was that we shouldn't worry about what the ending is more going to be like, but more what we want for the audience. We referenced the award winning series True Detective, and how through the series we sympathise with the characters so much that the ending brings us closure (spoiler alert). By comparison, we also empathise with the protagonist from The BBC drama The Missing, where we sympathise with the character throughout. However, by contrast the ending is not satisfying and there is a lack of closure which reflects on the emotive response of the character and the audience.

In a nutshell, he concurred that the ending we choose is going to fit what we want our audience to feel. This raised some questions between us as yet we aren't sure what reaction we want from the audience yet, however it brings us one step closer to an ending.

This is an ending for True Detective. It play on the emotion of the audience and the connection they make with one of the protagonists, as to create sympathy and closure.

Experiment: Filming at Night

As our previous test shoot had taken place during the day we decided to try filming at night and see which one looks better.

The four robbers in the car

Pig walking to the house

The Horse after he got shot

What can we conclude from this little experiment?

We all agreed that it makes more sense to film our real short film during the day. This is mainly because the footage we recorded at night looks grainy (especially noticable in the second and third picture).

On the other hand, what we liked about the footage recorded at night are all the shadows (see the first picture), creating a really dark and gritty atmosphere.

However it should also be noted that it is much easier to find people willing to act during the day rather than at night.

It was good that we gave the night-time filming a shot though as we now know from personal experience that filming during the day makes more sense!

Review of Test Shoot

Being Aware Of Reflections

Test Shoot

Last Thursday was supposed to be the first day of filming for our movie.
Shortly after starting to film we realised the following things:

• We were not as well prepared as we thought, e.g. we were missing a couple of props.
• One of our actors had to leave soon after we started filming.
• The lighting was unsuitable for the film. Although we previously were happy with the lights, we found that they were too bright.
• Going hand in hand with the lighting, the shadows were too prominent.

So these are some of the things we need to consider before filming the next time.

With the next shooting being scheduled for the following weekend, we will spend the next few lessons coming up with solutions for those problems in order to be better prepared.

Shooting Schedule

The Game Plan

This is the schedule we agreed on for the shooting and editing of our film.

The plan is to get all the shooting done in November and then do the editing throughout December.

The following are all the things we had to consider when setting up this schedule:

Availability of actors

Jamal was responsible for this task and together with our cast he decided on dates on which all of our actors were available.

Availability of location

Being an active building site we had to talk to Oli's dad to agree on dates on which we could film at the location without disturbing the ongoing building work.

Coordinating the schedule

It was my (Adrian's) task to coordinate and align the calendar, based on the input I received from my two teammates.

Script

EXT. SUBURBAN STREET. DAY

Long, low shot of a car driving through a narrow street. Car drives over the camera. We see the underneath of the car. Different shot inside and outside the car. Chicken, Pig and Horse are tense. Drive through the neighbourhood quickly. Arrive at the garages.

CHICKEN

*Gets out of car*

HORSE

*Gets out of car*

PIG

*Gets out of car*

Boot opens, we see another low shot of the characters from the POV of their loot. Connotes superiority. 

EXT. GARAGES. DAY

PIG

*Grabs bag*

Cut takes place and all the characters walk away from the car.

EXT. SITE. DAY

CHICKEN

*Opens door*

INT. SITE. DAY

The crew go into the building, and the pig places their loot onto the table.

CHICKEN

*Opens bag*

PIG

*Spills loot*

Shot List (2)

Shot List (1)

Storyboard (Summary)

So let's review this important milestone that we reached by completing the storyboards.
We accomplished this by meeting up as a group shortly after visiting the location, so that we still had everything freshly in mind.

As the narrative is to the most part based on the initial idea Jamal pitched, it only made sense for him to draw out his vision.
It was then up to Oli and me (Adrian) to determine shot lengths and describing the shots respectively.

We found it to be of huge importance that we could work on the storyboards as a group as this meant that everyone had some input and now knows exactly what the narrative of our film is.

Storyboards

Storyboards done!

I sketched and annotated the base storyboards. These are a rough guideline for Adrian and Oli who are going to make the final storyboards in respect to the location, along with some modifications that they feel is appropriate. There are highlights regarding what rough timings the shots will take (pink), and the music that we will implement into the scenes (green).