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Week 11 - Let's edit!

 We finished filming on Wednesday! We now have all of our shots with a few contingency options in case things don't work in the edit. Last week we realised how short 2 minutes actually are when we assembled a rough edit and it all stacked up really quickly. We're already talking about shots that aren't going to work or things that need to be trimmed down for the final cut. I think that it had even affected how we approached the last day of shooting and how we went from winging it and seeing what worked, to pinpointing the shots we actually needed and just going with those. I think the most interesting thing that's happened since starting this project is how much our film has developed since the original concept was pitched way back in week 7.  When we first started, our film originally felt like a serious drama, heart felt and shocking whereas, in reality what we've ended up with is a slightly comedic crime thriller. We still like our film and are maybe even happier
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Week 10 - Progress

 The majority of our filming is complete! We managed to get most of the interior shots using my place. It was nice and sunny which really helped with our light coming in through the windows.  I know I've mentioned that we are going to do some desaturation on a lot of the shots that take place 'after the incident' but having strong consistent lighting is pretty essential for cameras in general - especially phone cameras - they just don't seem to pick up the detail a DSLR does in lower light.  I'm finding there are a few different ideas about the type of action and how shots play out. I'm just focusing on the role I agreed to and doing my best to stay in my lane. Letting the director direct and focusing more on locations and aesthetics rather than focus on acting and performance. There were some issues on my end this week. I was hosting our shoot at my place and after we got started I felt like there was a lot I could have done to be better prepared.. Cleared out

Week 9 - Action

 We started filming this week and it's all coming together. We met at Knobby's and put a significant dent in our list of shots we're going to need. I really enjoyed the process of finding suitable shots and trying different angles to give ourselves options for the edit. There were even a few opportunities to use our environment to create a reoccurring theme and add a lot of production value with out having any additional planning or spending money. I did end up upgrading my phone for this film. I was planning on doing it for months, just waiting for the right phone/deal and I recently made the switch. It's a world of difference from the phone I used on my 30 second film. I even feel like I could have gotten more out of the phone if I had taken more time to look into advanced features but I think we have some great footage to work with. I know we were told to avoid using the zoom function but I feel like it worked great for a locked off shot that we managed to get, in fa

Week 8 - The Plan

 This week we started the storyboard - Sean wrote the script basically overnight after last week’s lectorial. I have a feeling we will be moving forward with just the 3 of us because we weren’t assigned another team member during today’s session. Our risk assessment has been emailed-pending approval we should be good to go. We decided to go with 'Burnt Toast Productions'. We feel it is a name everyone can relate to... we have all burnt toast at some point in our lives. We are going to include an animated logo for our opener. I will be undertaking the animation task as well as some of the responsibilities of a producer-art director hybrid. I feel like the team is capable and happy to share the load. There is going to a shared file on OneDrive that the team can have access to. This will be where we upload all our media and assets for everyone to access. We discussed a few more shots and how we are going to get coverage of different scenes. The script is more humorous th

Week 7 - The Team

The team was formed today! Well... most of us-there are a few people that weren't in class that could end up being a part of our group. We established some of our roles and responsibilities and everyone seemed happy.  Writer/Director: Sean Russell Sound: Jordan Manning Art Director: Joe Garcia (I may be taking on some DOP responsibilities - I'm buying a new phone.) We made a group chat on Facebook to keep in contact and decided Wednesdays after 11:30am would be the day we get most of our shooting done. This is subject to change once others are assigned to our team. So far everyone seems to be team players and very happy to compromise for the good of our film. Sean already had a rough concept ready to go which really got the ball rolling:           A guilt ridden man (not the title) References to where 'the incident' may have taken place. We talked about using repetitive imagery to convey to the audience where it may have happened. (e.g. sounds of seagulls, finding sand