Diary Post - Filming Day 1

Today I went round to my friend Lucy's house to film some scenes with her sister, Daisy and her sister's friend, Tilly. Daisy and Tilly will be playing young Casey and Ellie in the trailer. I took a tripod and my camera to Lucy's house and we filmed in Daisy's bedroom. At first, the girls found it a bit difficult to stay in character as they kept laughing. However, it was okay to laugh in most of their scenes because they are supposed to be natural and like kids. Overall I filmed the beginning scenes where the girls write the list and then one of the end scenes where Casey says "We're going to be best friends forever". I also kept filming as the girls did things that they would normally do, like making music videos and playing with bears, so I might try and find space for these scenes in my trailer. The shots I got look great and I can't wait to edit them!

Filming Plan

I have put in some dates of filming that I am planning. I had to make sure the actors were all available on all of the days. Hopefully, there won't be any changes and I can stick to my plan so I can begin editing as soon as possible. When I am in America, I will probably film bits and pieces randomly if I feel it fits with the film, therefore this doesn't really need planning.

Lighting research

Lighting research from elliesmith1201

I did some research on lighting in films similar to mine, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl and If I Stay. Both of these films differed in the way they used lighting to convey different emotions, however both used a sort of sterile white light because of the clinical settings and darker, warmer colours for happier scenes. I concluded that I wanted to use similar techniques in my trailer and I would do my best to achieve this in filming and editing.

Animatic Storyboard

This is my animatic storyboard for my film. I drew the pictures myself, taking into consideration camera angles, shots and locations. Then I used iMovie to edit them altogether and added intertitles that I might add in my film. I also added some music, however I am aware that this is probably copyrighted and thus, I wouldn't be using this in my real film. I added the music to get an overall feel to my animatic. One thing that I need to work on is the title screen at the end as I didn't think this one really fit or looked like a real film trailer. I want to make my trailer look as authentic as possible, so I will work on this.

I will try my best to stick to this and include all of the different shots and angles to make my trailer varied and interesting. 

Practice poster

Today I developed my Photoshop skills as I have never used this program before. I learnt how to add layers and pictures. I have used a picture of Casey and I, who are the main characters however for my real poster I will use a still from the film or have a photo shoot. I also found a picture of a notebook page and added that at the bottom where my title would go. This would link to my film as the plot revolves around a list/notebook, I used a fade option on this to integrate the picture into the poster.

I also learnt how to add text to the picture. I put the actors names on the heads of the actors, which I think may be a good idea to use in my real poster. I used the font that I got off the dafont.com website called, End of the Dream. I haven't definitely decided on this font but this looks really good. I also added the date however I need to look more into the placing of these details on real film posters.

As a first time using photoshop I think I did quite well and I have decided I will use this program when I am creating my real film poster and I can't wait to get better at it!

Costumes

I made a PowerPoint on emaze to display what I thought about which styles each character would wear and some examples of some outfit. I will try to match these outfits to ones the actors own and that they can wear whilst filming.

Shotlist

I created a shot list so that I could take it to the different shooting days with me. I have printed them out so they are easily accessible when I am at my locations and I can also tick off when I have completed each scene. The shot lists also really helped me to try and get a variety of shot sizes and angles as well as some movement. This will help to make my trailer more interesting for the audience. I wrote a brief description about each shot so that I knew what the actors had to do in each scene.