R+P Post 20: Reflections so far/ looking ahead

I think that Tom and I have worked really well together so far, and although our rough cut is not great at the moment, it has shown us lots of really good places to improve on for the main shoot (see posts 18 and 19).

I am looking forward to the main shoot, and I think it is going to go really well.I think the biggest improvements will be in costumes and set design, especially in the lighting. I am really looking forward to using the Arri lighting for the main shoot, as we only used them as props in our test shoot.

R+P Post 19: Our rough cut

 Our finished rough cut

I found editing the rough cut with Tom was really fun, as we both worked well together, as well as individually, and  it was fun to watch the footage we had taken. I also think the rough cut was not bad for a first attempt, although there are lots of improvements we still need to make. For example, after the test shoot we though that the majority of our shots were fine in terms of length, but then when it came to the rough cut edit, we realised some of them were too long. For example, we have decided that Toby will wear bandages when walking around the house, as shot 11 lasts too long because we didn't fit down the stair and make sure the strings weren't wobbling.

I think that the rough cut would have been much better with the improvements we need to make for the shoot. That being said, there were still some issues that we need to resolve with regards to the narrative, and some of the continuity sequences, as well as the lingering interview shot with Joyce, that can be resolved in editing. We have also made a shot list of all the changes made, which we will soon transfer onto our storyboard.

A list of improvements to be made:

1. Make Joyce's interview shot more engaging. We can do this by using more cutaways, typical of the documentary-style editing we hope to achieve in the main edit.
   
2. Change the end sequence. Currently, the end sequence is very out of place and makes no sense in the narrative. We intend to change that by making a change t the storyboard. Instead of having Toby get his dinner, we are going to have a sequence of him packing the car with all of his university stuff, then being driven away by Joyce.
   
3. Make the first shot make more sense. This is the shot where he is in bed, and the camera crew watch him wake up. Again, we are making a change to the storyboard by having Joyce bring him breakfast in bed, as it is his last day at home, and this will make the shot make more sense as part of the narrative.
   

Our new shot list

R+P Post 18: Our test shoot

I enjoyed filming for the test shoot, and I think Tom and I worked well together as a team. We first made a shoot board for our filming, which included specific location, time of shot, dialogue, props and costumes needed, actors needed, and shot number. This was very useful as it meant we could stay organised throughout the day, and use our time efficiently. We then filmed using a Canon Legria HFG30 camera, with a Canon DM-100 Directional Microphone for each of our shots, also using the Libec TH-650 HD Tripod in our interview set-up to make it more steady. We also used a clapperboard befroe each of our shots with the shot number asnd take number, so that it would be easier to label our shots when editing.

Shootboard page 1

Shootboard page 2

Shootboard page 4

Shootboard page 3

I think that the test shoot went okay, but could have gone a lot better. Firstly, we should have better planned our shots with Toby better, because we found ourselves having to improvise in the shots where he is walking down the stairs. Additionaly, we are going to change actors for the person playing Toby, as we cast someone who doesn't really suit the role, and did not enjoy working in that sort of environment. There are lots of improvements that have to be made fore next time, and the majority of our overall improvements to be made came under filming.

 List of improvements to be made:

1. Change shot 4 (shot of Toby waking up) to a shot following Joyce into his room with breakfast in bed. This will make it make more sense as an individual shot, and as part of the narrative.
   
2. Remember to use the clapperboard as part of the shot in shot 6 (interview with Toby). We did do this, but because we were using the Toby puppet, we had to try and fix the string afterwards, and we did not do it again before we said action.
3. Use better lighting in all of the shots. For example, in the shot with Joyce drinking and doing squats, you can't see her face at all because it is a natural back-lit shot from the window, creating a silhouette. Also, we are going to use more professional lighting in the interview shots to show more of a difference between the interview set-up, and the more natural around-the-house set-ups.
   
4. Make better use of Kenny. After doing some psychoanalysis of Kenny, we decided that if Joyce does love Toby more, it makes more sense for Kenny to be a try-hard who loves himself. Also, he is currently an underused and generally boring character. We re going to turn him into a narcissist by changing his lines around and having him trying to be like Joyce in mor of the shots.
5. Make a clearer sense of Toby going to uni. We will use cardboard boxes and more suitcases (etc), to show that he is leaving. 
6. Lastly, we are going to replace Tamir as Toby with Ray, as Tamir didn't enjoy the shoot day and does not suit the role. 

Tamir as Toby.

Ray as Toby.

Ray.

R+P Post 17: Our editing arrangements

We did most of the editing together, as this proved to work well when creating the animatic, and we could make all the large decisions about the opening sequence together. We used Adobe Premiere Pro to edit on, because it has a visual time line, and allows you to have two playback screens: one showing the raw shots, and one showing the edited shots in the time line. This was useful, as it meant we could really easily pick out the parts of the shots we wanted, and it made it easier to choose the best take(s) of each shot. The software was also really useful for our sound editing, as we could edit the asynchronous music to fit with the visuals, and change with the narrative. It was useful in the same way for editing synchronous sound effects such as the sound of rustling bed sheets, and an alarm clock going off.

Our editing schedule

R+P Post 16: Casting, costumes, hair and make-up

TOBY

The old Toby, played by Tamir.

Toby's costume consists of bandages to cover his face, as well as goggles to cover his eyes. This means the audience can't see any of his skin or flesh, making him 'invisible'. We cast Tamir as Toby because he is available on the shoot day.

KENNY

Tom before the costume.

Tom in costume.

Kenny's costume is a buttoned up shirt and just generally looking smart. We cast Tom as Kenny because he is a good actor, and will be there for the filming anyway, making shoot day arrangements a lot easier.

JOYCE

My mum with the costume (AKA Joyce).

My mum before the costume.

Joyce's costume consists of a loose T-shirt and leggings (because she is exercise-crazy) as well as 2 pairs of sunglasses, neither of which are on her face, because she is an edgy middle-class mum. We cast my mum (Finella Craig) as Joyce because she lives at my house, making the arrangements for filming much easier, and because she is already so similar to Joyce in characteristics. She will aslo take the part very seriously and try her best to act well.

R+P Post 15: Our filming location, set design and props

Tom and I chose to film in my house because it is a medium sized family home that would suit our characters. Additionally, my mum, who is playing Joyce, lives there, so it is easier for her.

INTERVIEWS (Set up 1)

The specific location for this set up will be the corner of my living room. We will use a white chair with background props for this set up in order to create a staged setting to contrast with our other nature settings. 

The props we will use in the background will be the lights and the boom mic. To make this set up better we will move the unnecessary props out of the background (such as the kitchen roll). We will also use better and more professional looking lighting, rather than just natural lighting. This will create a better contrast between our natural locations and our staged locations.

The corner of my living room.

BEDROOM (Set up 2)

The specific location for this setting is my bedroom. We intend to make this more fitting of Toby, as someone who is about to move out.

We changed the sheets on my bed to fit more with his character, and I cleaned up a bit. I also removed some unnecessary props from my room such as my clarinet. However, to make it better next time, we are going to get lots of cardboard boxes and label them with things like "clothes" and "books", as if he is really moving away. We will also use other props such as suitcases to have the same effect. I think this will portray his character much more, as at the moment, it seems like the room has none of his character. We made these changes to my room in order to set it up for the test shoot.

My bedroom before the changes.

My bed after the changes.

My bed after the changes.

LIVING ROOM (Set up 3)

The living room is the main setting we use for Joyce, and the specific location is my living room. We will have the Wii Fit set up for Joyce to use in her shots (such as the shot with her doing stretches when Toby introduces her). We set this room up for the test shoot by just tidying up a bit and making it look more conventionl of a family living room.

My living room.

R+P Post 14: Our filming arrangements

We decided to film at my house for the shoot because it is a medium sized family house fitting of our characters. Tom took the kit home and then had his dad drive it to my house on the day of the test shoot. We had our shoot arrangement signed off earlier that week. We started early at 9am on the Sunday so that we had enough opportunity to film.

Our shoot arrangements form

R+P Post 13: Our animatic

We made our animatic in order to see if the shots we had planned from our storyboard and shootboard would work together in the narrative we intended to create, as well as making sure they all flowed smoothly together.

First we took photos that represented each of our shots well, and in some cases we took 2 photos in order to accurately portray the movement, as our opening sequence is mostly lingering shots full of camera and character movement. We then edited all the shots together in Adobe Premier Pro and added inter titles to the sequence. We also had to add a wav. file of the dialogue that we recorded during our editing time, which took the majority of our editing time. After this, we finally edited in our sound effects such as the rustling of bed sheets and an alarm clock. Here is the animatic for our film's opening sequence.

Our editing schedule for the animatic consisted mostly of lunchtimes (as well as our timetabled lessons), where we were both editing together. We found that this was the best way of editing the animatic, as both of us working on it at the same time meant that we could both make important decisions, and less time would be wasted in catching up what the other person had done while the other wasn't there.

Animatic editing schedule

Our animatic helped us to see which parts of the storyboard we needed to revise before the test shoot. We only really needed to change one thing, by adding an extra inter title at the beginning in order to explain more to the audience. We also had to change a small part of the dialogue, from "what's it like living with your brother's condition?" to "how do you cope with your brother's condition?". This fit the time better, and it helped the story to flow much more freely. I am pleased with our animatic, and I think it helped us both visualise the opening sequence better.

R+P Post 12: Our storyboard

I really enjoyed creating the storyboard with Tom, as I found it easier to create a plan of the opening sequence visually. Also, it enabled us to think more about the story and narrative structure shot-by-shot. Additionally, it allowed us to plan our dialogue really well, which is essential for our opening sequence due to its genre.

Photo of our first storyboard

Our framing colour-key

We decided to use post-it notes for our storyboard shots because they can be easily moved around an changed. We used a key to tell us which colour post-it note corresponds to which framing type. We chose to do this because it meant we could quickly see if we had too many shots with the same framing next to each other, which would make it boring for the audience.

I found that making the storyboard was the most useful part of pre-production, as it gave us the first real visualisation of the opening sequence as a whole.

R+P Post 11: Our timeline

We made our time line in order to plan when and what shots and sequences we will have in our opening sequence, as well as planning the music and sound effect entry and exit points.

The time line really helped us to plan how long to spend on each character interview, and how long to spend in the character introduction. It also allowed us to have an easy overview of the sequences we had already included, and what we would need to add to make it more engaging and exciting. For example, we had not yet included a continuity scene, and we were unsure of how to end the opening sequence, so we added a continuity sequence at the end (which we are now changing to a different continuity sequence), of Toby, Joyce, and Kenny getting dinner. It also allowed us to plan an effective beginning, middle, and end to our sequence, so we could almost evenly distribute the time evenly between the three sections. Additionally, this meant we were able to fulfil a classic narrative structure so that the story could flow and make sense to the audience. Additionally, we were able to think of the sound effects and music in relation to the shots and visuals.

Photo of our time line

The downside of creating a time line in this way was working out the timings of each of the shots/sequences without being able to visualise the sequence in the same way as we did with our storyboard, which we made after the time line. This was not a necessary part of making a time line, but I think that I, personally, would have found it a lot easier to create if it had a visual element to it. That being said, I think our time line went really well, as Tom and I had similar ideas and sense of humour, so we were able to work efficiently with each other. Also, it set us up really well for our storyboard, which we ended up getting done really quickly because we were able to keep referring back to our time line.

R+P Post 10: Reflections so far/ looking ahead

I think that so far, Tom and I have worked really well together as a team, splitting the workload evenly. We can both easily agree on and adapt ideas together, and have found that we work very well together, always finishing work before the deadlines, and never needing extensions. We have also been very organised with meetings and always managed to get a lot of work done in the time allocated.

I am really pleased with our project so far, and I think we have executed the humour in the opening sequence surprisingly well. After having done the animatic, we have also seen which parts worked and which did not, allowing us to change the storyboard so it is the best it can be. My personal favourite part of the opening sequence is Joyce, as she is such a relatable character for me because I know so many mums like her.

I am looking forward to continuing further with this project, as it is a unique idea, and there will be many creative opportunities in creating Toby, as an invisible character. I also think this will be a really good learning opportunity for some new practical skills that I may not have learnt with another idea. Additionally, the genre we have chosen gives us flexibility in the editing, as many mockumentaries have jump cuts in them. This gives us a really good backup plan in editing, especially as we are going to be filming some really long takes, and we will want to include the best parts in our opening sequence.

Jump cutting in What We Do In The Shadows.

The next part of the project is making the shoot board and doing the test-shoot, which poses the immediate challenge of creating an invisible character. However, I think Tom and I can think creatively enough to get past this issue and make use of our test shoot really well.

R+P Post 9: Our opening sequence's soundtrack

Investigations by Kevin Macleod

We chose this sound track because it is a stereotypical documentary classical song to accompany dialogue. It has no lyrics, so it won't draw attention from the dialogue or the visual footage. Additionally, many documentaries and mockumentaries use classical pieces with lots of pizzicato strings and woodwind, which is what Investigations has (see the full description in the Youtube link). Also, it is a copyright free track sourced from the YouTube channel EricArchive. An example of another mockumentary that uses this is Parks and Recreation, which, although is a TV show, uses the stereotypical documentary music to extend the comedy mimicry of documentaries.

 SOUND EFFECTS

All of our sound effects will be diegetic apart from the music. This is conventional of the genre, as it has minimal sound editing and it is reflective of true life, or in our case, mirroring true life.

R+P Post 8: The credits in our opening sequence

ORDER OF CREDITS

1. Distributor logo - Focus Features (see below)
2. Inter titles with the basic film idea on, similar to films such as What We Do In The Shadows and Trollhunter.
3. Clapperboard with our names and the production houses on. This is done in Surf's Up in order to give company credits, while still not breaking genre conventions.
4. Character names and roles on inter titles throughout, similar to most documentaries and mockumentaries.

Intertitles at the beginning of What We Do In The Shadows.


Use of a clapperboard for credits in Surf's Up.

R+P Post 7: Our opening sequence's planned mise-en-scene

CAMERA

• Partly handheld camera movements to mirror the live recording of documentaries.
• Interviews filmed using a tripod so it is steady, conventional of the genre.
• Lots of camera movement, including zooms, focus shifts, and and pans, also conventional of the live-filming-style we aim to achieve.

Handheld camera movements in the opening scene of Waiting for Guffman.

Handheld camera movements in Trollhunter.

LIGHTING

Naturalistic indoor lighting, using warm colour palettes. This is to represent a natural and un-staged setting conventional of documentaries, to give it as natural a feel as possible.

Examples of natural lighting in Parks and Recreation (top left), Waiting for Guffman (top right), What We Do In The Shadows (bottom left), and The office (bottom right).

SETTINGS

It will be set completely in a house. This is because it is both a conventional opening setting of mockumentary films (for example, What We Do In The Shadows), and it is a natural setting fitting of a family, which makes it more similar to live, un-rehearsed filming.

Typical family home interior.

PROPS

• Photos of the family.

• A wedding photo of Joyce and Tony with Tony's eyes scratched out.

• A digital alarm clock.

• Lap trays with dinner on them.

•  A Wii Fit for Joyce to use. 

• A bottle of red wine.

COSTUMES

• Toby - glasses suspended with invisible acrylic thread // clothes propped up in an interview seat using wire // nothing
• Joyce - workout clothes such as leggings or yoga pants.

• Kenny - typical teenager clothes such as jeans and a hoodie.

R+P Post 6: Our opening sequence's characters and how we plan to represent social groups

Our characters will be acting very naturally and mirroring how people would act in real documentaries. Examples of this mockumentary character archetype are Dave Sanderson from Parks and Recreation, and Viago and Stu from What We Do In The Shadows. This is often conveyed by the character looking into the camera a lot, or stuttering on their words/not speaking very much, as well as fumbling with the clip on microphone.
 

Dave from Parks and Recreation

Viago from What We Do In The Shadows.

 

Clip from What We Do In The Shadows, where Stu (in the stripy top)

teaches the vampires about technology.

Clip from What We Do In The Shadows where Viago tries to suck the blood of his victim.

Auntie Angela from Outnumbered.

1. Toby - Protagonist // invisible boy who is very socially awkward because he has been home-schooled his whole life. His character is conventional to the comedy and mockumentary genre, because he is a very extreme character, and also very awkward in front of the cameras.
2. Joyce - Toby's mum // an ex-pilates instructor, who is a single, independent mother of two. She favourites Toby because he is a special child compared to Kenny. She is conventional of comedy films because she is such an outrageous character. She also follows the trope of the over-involved 'cool' mum in famous comedy films such as Regina George's mum in Mean Girls, or the edgy relative, like Auntie Angela in Outnumbered.
   

   

   Regina George's mum from Mean Girls.

3. Kenny - Toby's identical twin // he is not invisible, and is very odd, but normal compared to the rest of his family. He doesn't have much involvement other than the fact that he is Toby's twin, and the least favourite of Joyce's sons. His role is to be the character that the other character's don't really cares much about, similar to Big Keith in The Office.
4. Tony - Joyce's ex-husband/Kenny and Toby's dad // he is now married to a 20-year-old. He has moved on with his life and Joyce is "over him". He is only mentioned in the opening sequence, and does not actually appear.

Big Kieth's appraisal from The Office.

R+P Post 5: Our opening sequence idea

NARRATIVE

1. Beginning  - Inter titles describing the basic theme of the film. A CU shot pans over Toby's bed in the morning, and there is a focus pull onto his alarm clock as it starts to ring. Toby wakes up, and an inter title reveals that he is invisible. This part is heavily influenced by the opening scene of What We Do In The Shadows.
2. Middle - The camera tracks to follow Toby around the house as he introduces the different characters, which will be cross-cut with documentary-style interviews with them. This, again is influenced by What We Do In The Shadows, as well as the general convention to introduce main characters in the opening sequence of films (although ours is done a bit more more blatantly than most films).
3. End -  Toby packs for going to university, and the family sit down for dinner in front of the TV on their last night together before he leaves.

 

The first 6 minutes of What We Do In The Shadows.

SCRIPT

Our opening sequence script.

NARRATIVE CONVENTIONS

• The audience doesn't find out what his 'condition' is until they see the character for the first time, when it is revealed by an inter title. This is a convention of the genre, as it leaves the audience is suspense, but not for too long.
• We are using binary opposites between Toby and his brother, a film convention in general. For example, the binary opposite between the main group of teenagers, and Hans (the main troll hunter), even though they still have to work together, in Trollhunter.

R+P Post 4: Our film's genre, title, and plot outline

Working Title: Sight for Sore Eyes

We decided this as the working title because it is a joke about how you can't see the main character, Toby. This was influenced by fiolm titles such as We're Wolves, a mockumentary about a pack of werewolves, still in development.

Genre: Comedy mockumentary.

PLOT

24 Hours in A&E, a documentary on Channel 4.

Equilibrium: The Lerone family spend the last day of the summer holidays at home, the day before Toby goes to university.

Disruption: Toby goes to university for the first time, and finds it difficult to be a 'normal' part of society, and although people want to be his friends, he is very socially awkward and tries to avoid most people.
Realisation: Toby realises that he is the only one holding him back from having friends, and it wasn't because he is invisible after all.

New Equilibrium: Toby goes back home after the year is over, and everything goes back to the way it was in the summer holiday. Inter titles then reveal what happened after the story within the film, and that Toby has died after a driver didn't see him and ran him over, his brother got a job, and his mum has moved to the Himalayas to become a new age guru, teaching yoga and pilates practises. We decided to use these end inter titles as they are so common in documentaries, for example, 24 Hours in A&E, to tell the audience what has happened since filming.

R+P Post 3: Our production and distribution institutions

PRODUCTION HOUSES

• Film4 (management and finance) - known for financing indie films, for example, Trollhunter, and especially British indie films.
• Triggertoa Films (production) - this is our own independent production house. We are using our own production house rather than an already existing one for production because it is conventional of independent films.
• BFI and National Lottery (management and finance) - "BFI uses National Lottery funds to develop and support original UK filmmakers and films" - BFI Film Fund. Our film is an independent British film featuring British actors and characters, which would pass the Britishness Cultural Test.This is a great budget source for so many British indie films, such as American Honey, and Attack the Block.

Film4 logo (left), BFI and National Lottery logo (right)

DISTRIBUTOR

• Focus Features - they are a subsidiary of a big, well known studio that distributes both Hollywood and independent films worldwide (Universal Studios). This would work well for our film being able to reach our global audience.

  

  Focus Features logo

R+P Post 2: Our target audience and how we plan to attract/address them

OUR TARGET AUDIENCE

Our target audience is mockumentary fans, and fans of comedy and indie films, typically 15-25 year olds, as well as a global audience. These will be the sort of people who watch lots of videos online including Youtube or Vimeo, and generally consume a lot of online media, as well as heavy social media. We chose this as our target audience because we are part of this audience, and most of our friends are part of this audience too. This means there will be no problem in getting audience feedback, and other reference points to influence our work.

Youtube logo (left), Vimeo logo (right).

HOW WE WILL ADDRESS OUR AUDIENCE

• We will use lots of humour to appeal to the comedy fans in our audience. We will achieve this using relatable but exaggerated characters, as well as the mockumentary genre as a whole.
• The plot for our film is relatable for this age group, as it is a coming-of-age film about going to uni and leaving home for the first time. 
• To address a more global audience, we have included universal themes such as leaving home, coming-of-age, and disability.

R+P Post 1: How we intend to work as a group

For the film opening sequence project, I am part of Group 4 with Tom Brown. Here is a gif including photos of our group:

We decided that we will work together democratically and share the workload between us, taking half each. In order to organise our group meetings and filming schedule we have set up a Facebook group, where we can also discuss more ideas for our project.