What's been happening recently

Recently I've been sorting things out on making my drama and corporate video.

Corporate Video

For this module, I first made a choice on promoting the Waterstones store in Stafford. But then I was asked how this is going ahead. I then thought that it wasn't going to work.

I was then suggested on making a promotional video on the course I'm doing and I thought it will work. I then planned out most of the paperwork ( still got some to do) and planned out how its going to look. I asked two of my lecturers for an interview on how they guide the students and I've also asked two students to be interviewed about their recent projects, what they think about the course and would they recommend them to existing students.

I have recently shot the two interviews from the students. This went very well and they were very honest on their opinions. Still got to interview the lecturers though.

I want to, at one point, to email an old student that was on the course previously and ask him or her for an interview about the course.

Drama

This module is going well sofar. I recently wrote the rest of the script and made some changes to make it more realistic. I asked the people I want to use as actors and they agreed. I have had many discussions with the main actress on when to film, about her character, asking if her sister would have a small part and about the script changes.

I have recently made a Powerpoint pitch of my film for the group with many inspirations and my ideas etc. I felt that I did well but it would have been better without the youtube adverts before my clips I chose the show. I hope I get good marks for it.

We've been set an isighnment on watching two tv shows or films and writing about the pre production, production and post production and then relate to our own pieces. We also have to write what we think of the methods that the filmmakers used. This was very challenging at first because alot of films have inspired me thorough out my own pieces. I had permission to watch The Shining with audio commentary (yippee, my all time favourite film). I had help on choosing three other films, which were Gothica and Shutter Island and The Others, which are other films I love. I watched Gothica with audio commentary, which was really good. I then watched behind the scenes of Shutter Island and The Others, which again were really good. Unfortunately, The Others and Shutter Island didn't have audio commentary. Through out watching these, I kept on pausing or rewinding to take notes. This was alot of work but very enjoyable (especially on the Shining). I now at the stage where I'm writing the report with my collected notes and having the use of my Stephen King movie guide for The Shining.

Last night, I shot the first scene with the main actress and a friend of mine that's playing the part as the main character's friend. I also made a start on the second scene with the main character and her sister. Last night was a success but I had issues with the lighting on the first scene because it went very dark. We worked around this and I thought I could keep it that way to make a spooky atmosphere. I used the street lamps as the lighting.

The second scene also went very well. But the actress's sister was very nervous infront of camera, so the actress and I tried to help her become more relaxed. We did this by saying that it's only us that's watching her and filming her, not a large film crew. I also helped her get into character by making her imagine that her sister is actually being horrible. This really helped and when she shouted her lines like she was supposed to, I was even taken aback! haha. I want to improve on the log sheets on catching up what I just filmed. I'm, sure I've got time to do this through out filming my drama. And even my corporate video.

I have still got more to film and edit for these modules but I'm sure they'll come up well.

What I've done recently

Through out the second year of my course, I have recently been learning about Documentary because we will be doing the module next year. Our lecturer said that we should do a head start.

By doing this, we've learned the history of documentary, of when it started etc. We've also been watching many documentaries, to see the different styles and how it's done. This has been really interesting to see the different formats and the subjects that were chosen.

We've also been going back to the Corporate Video module. This time, we had to choose a company to make a video for, ourselves. This I thought was very difficult because I didn't know what company to choose. I had help by suggesting to do a corporate video for the course. I agreed and chosen a video to promote the course.

For this, I have been going through paper work and preparing to film for it. I should be filming very soon.

I've also been going back to the Drama module. We have to make a short drama of our choice. So I've written the script on a drama idea. This time, I've written another horror (yippee!!!). I've asked a friend of mine if she wanted to have the part as the main character and asked her sister if she wanted to take the part as the character's sister. They both agreed and I have sent the script to her. I've given her a week to learn it and will be starting shooting next week.

The report for drama we have to do is to choose two films or TV shows to watch and write about what happened in pre production, production and post production. We also had to connect them through out our movie making experiences   I have been allowed to choose the film, The Shining (gives me an excuse to watch it again, cheers Dave!! :D) and I have watched with the audio commentary to help. I have also watched some of the special features on it aswell. No these I thought really helped because they were very informative and interesting. I have got a Stephen King movie guide to help me write about the pre production of the film.

I have to choose another film to watch. This I struggled with because when I have made films, more than one film has inspired me. To I was suggested to watch three films with audio commentary and choose the best one. I have picked the films, Shutter Island, Gothika and The Others. I love all three of these.

I found then that Gothika has audio commentary but the other two haven't. But the other two have the making of features. So what I'm going to do, is that I'm going to watch Gothika with the commentary and Shutter Island and The Others making of's. I'm going to see which one of them is the best to write about.

I will be catching up more with blogger, so excuse me for the delay.