Filming - 16/12/12

Today Rudi, Jay and I met up to try and finish filming the 'spray room' scenes of Lifeless. We arrived at my dad's garage at about 10.00am and we finished at about 4.00pm. This was a very successful day of filming, as we were very focussed and managed to shoot all of the scenes. We always spent a long time on every shot, perfecting it and making sure it conveyed the correct messages. In the end after doing a shot we would each look at it from our points of view:

Rudi - as a cinematographer.
Jay - as an actor.
Me - as an actor and director.

If we all like the shot from our points of view, we moved on... If not we would spend a lot of time on the same shot (some shots took a VERY long time, while others took a matter of seconds to discuss and a few minutes to shoot). In the end we were all very happy with all of the footage.

We only need to shoot two more scenes for Lifeless and it will be finished. These scenes are:

1. When we are 'teleported' to my house.
2. When I wake up after the accident.

We will film these scenes within the next few days and then I will edit the whole film together just before the last day of term to show to our class and hopefully receive some feedback.

Filming and Editing - 13/12/12

A few days ago Rudi and I filmed the last scene to bridge the scenes at school and the running sequence together. So he gave me all the footage so far and I started editing on the 13th. In the end I managed to edit a rough version of the first half of Lifeless. I think it looks very good, but I would like to re-shoot the beginning of the sequence inside my dad's garage as I feel it is not clear that the two character's are in the same room for the first few shots. We are set to film at my Dad's garage again tomorrow, where we will re-shoot the few shots that I didn't like too much and continue with the filming process... Hopefully to the end of the film.

Filming - 2/12/12

On Sunday Rudi, Jay, James and I met up to do some more filming. I feel that it went very well as we did the last few shots with the car and we started work on the shots inside the spray room. In the end, we finished all the shots that we needed James for (so that he didn't have to come along if he didn't want to next time) and we made a good start on the shots in the spray room. The only scenes left to shoot are the beginning of the running sequence, a scene at my house and the end of the spray room section. I think we will have to meet up for a whole day in a few weeks time to finish pretty much all of this. Maybe 16th December...

I will get the footage from Sunday (and the footage from a few weeks ago) from Rudi as soon as I can. That way I can start getting a rough cut together for the opening of the film.

Problems...

For various reasons, we haven't been able to meet up for filming recently. But we are set to film some more this Sunday. We will hopefully finish the last scene with the car, and the scenes we need other people for this Sunday, so we will only have a few scenes to finish next time we meet.

Filming and Editing - 14/11/12

Yesterday Jay, Rudi and I met up to film the first scenes of Lifeless. We spent a good hour or so after school shooting in and around a computer room. We managed to film a lot of the beginning and only stopped because we ran out of natural light and so couldn't continue onto the beginning of the running sequence. After filming I copied the footage from Rudi's laptop to my computer and edited a very rough copy of the end of the running sequence. I did this to give people a taste of my film at our school's open day today. We will be filming this Sunday and then I will get the footage from yesterday and Sunday at the end to start editing as we move through the film.

Update for Filming - 28/10/12

There have been many inconveniences over the past few months so we haven't been able to meet up and film together. A few weeks ago I looked through the footage that we had already shot and decided there were many different parts to it that I didn't like and so told the others that I'd like to re-film it all - which they agreed to after I explained my reasoning. Today, we finally managed to meet up to film. But when we arrived at my dad's garage, we found out that, unfortunately, one of his work colleagues had used the spray room yesterday. This meant that the spray room was no longer white, but pink. So we spent a long time re-painting it and waiting for the paint to dry. In the end we decided to shoot all of the scenes that were set outside the garage. These were just the shots where my dad is getting in his car, then the shots where I am running towards the archway, and the final shot of where he hits me with the car. We spent a very long time on these shots and tried out many different ways of doing them. In the end we had a lot of footage of these scenes that I can now 'play around' with to get the sequence to the look like the way I want it. We will meet up next weekend to finish filming and also meet up after school the week after next to do the final few shots in school. If all goes to plan, the film should be ready for editing by the 11th November.

Filming 02/09/12

Jay, Rudi, James and I met up today to try and film the rest of Lifeless. After a long discussion, we decided that a lot of things have changed since the last time we filmed and so it will be easier to re-film everything. So we set out to re-film as much as possible at my dad's garage. In the end we managed to reach about the same area we were at before restarting (if we ignore the fact that Ben wasn't with us, so we couldn't shoot the scene that contained him, and we couldn't shoot the scenes that weren't in my dad's garage). We will meet up again during the first school week to shoot the scenes at school and on the streets outside school and we are meeting up every Sunday we can to film the scenes at the garage. So I think that we will finish filming within the next 3 weeks, and I will finish editing within a week or two after that. So the film should be completed in about 5 weeks time.

Update on Progress

Most of us have been on holiday the past few weeks, so we haven't managed to finish filming just yet. We will do the last of the filming by the end of next week, then I will be able to edit the film together in time for the next school term.

Filming - 05/08/12

Yesterday I met up with Jay, James, Ben and Rudi to film most of 'Lifeless'. We met at around midday and were filming until around 8.30PM. This was a very tiresome day, but we managed to get most of the filming done. The only scenes we didn't manage to film were the scene where my character gets hit by the car and the last 4 pages of dialogue from my script.

This was because it was not overcast (like when we had started filming the other week) and so we couldn't do the scene outside with the car... And we ran out of time to do the last pieces of dialogue.

I think that it was a very successful day of filming and because there was five of us, we could all talk about the different shots we were taking and the different ideas people had about each shot. We had a good mixture of camera angles and ideas for post production, so I am really looking forward to putting all of the shots together to create the final film.

I have saved all of 184 files from that day on my computer, but have decided to not start the editing process until we have finished all of the scenes, and I know exactly which shots go where in the film.

As most of us are going on holiday soon, we will be meeting up during this week to film the rest of the shots we need to complete the film.

Filming 18/07/12

On the 18th of July, Jay, James and I met up in school to shoot the first few scenes of Lifeless, it was quite overcast and because the school children broke up that day, the school was near empty. We spent a few hours filming and I took the footage home. Today I have finally managed to sit down and analyse the footage. Most of it was very good and I have completed a first draft of the first couple of scenes for the film. It is no-where near completion, but the film is looking as if it will be very good when it is finished. Next week sometime we will finish filming and I will finish editing the film before the end of the summer.

Preparing the Set...

On Tuesday (5th June) I went to my dad's garage to paint the spray room white for the filming of Lifeless. This went extremely well and it looks very good. We are now all ready to film, we just need to find a day that everyone is available to do it.

Storyboard

This is my storyboard for 'Lifeless'.

Please excuse the poor quality of the pictures, I tried to copy them onto blogger and it didn't work, so I had to print them out and scan them back into my computer to have them saved as actual picture files to upload...

Pitch for Short Film - 'Lifeless'

Script for 'Lifeless'

(Please excuse line breaks as I have copies this from Microsoft word and some line breaks are not clear, or are too big) 

Lifeless

Written By

Kieran Tyler

Kieran Tyler

KGT100@hotmail.co.uk

INT. – SCHOOL CORRIDOR – AFTERNOON

An over-the-shoulder shot follows a boy, AARON CHIPLEY, as he walks towards a door.

SUPERIMPOSE TITLES: Lone Warrior Productions presents

                     A Film Starring Kieran Tyler

                     And Jay Dobinson

INT. – SCHOOL ICT SUITE – AFTERNOON

A canted angle shows a boy, JASON HERLEY, sitting alone working at a computer, he seems to be the only one in the room. A door opens behind him, AARON – his best friend - walks in.

AARON

Hey Jason... it’s like 4.30. what are you still doing here?

           JASON

Ah, I’ve got a load of Chemistry coursework to do. Miss- wait, what time is it?!

           AARON

About 4.30, why? Is there somewhere you need to be mate?

Jason mutters under his breath while he panics and packs his things away

           JASON

I have to go, I’m meant to be home for my guitar lesson now.

Aaron laughs

AARON

Well, good luck with that, I’ll see you tomorrow for English mate.

Jason isn’t paying much attention

           JASON

     Yeah ok man I’ll see you then…

Jason rushes out the door and starts to run home

EXT. – ROADS – AFTERNOON

A rock soundtrack starts; soft at first then builds and builds. There is a mixture of shots showing Jason running down roads and alleyways, deciding on a route as he goes. Extreme close ups on his feet, over the shoulder shots to show some of his route, big close ups to show his emotions.

EXT. – INDUSTRIAL UNIT - AFTERNOON

Jason turns down an alleyway into an industrial centre to try and save time. There is a cut to a point of view shot in which we see what Jason sees. Jason runs around a corner into a car. The music stops and there is a flash of white light as he hits the car bonnet and slides to the floor. The camera is facing the sky and it slowly fades to white.

TITLE (IN BLACK): Lifeless

INT. – WHITE ROOM

FADES IN: Jason has his eyes closed and then as he opens them the camera starts to pull out. Jason gets up and we see a medium close up of his face. The camera very quickly pulls out and does 180 degrees very fast rotation around Jason, then quickly pushes in to the back of his head. We see another Point of view shot, in which Jason runs at a wall in an attempt to escape the alien room. There is a cut to a shot just behind Jason as he hits the wall and falls to the floor.

           JASON

     WHERE AM I?!

The camera turns 90 degrees to show AARON appearing next to him.

           AARON

Well, this is your mind… Not much is it… (Laughs)

           JASON

Wha-! Aaron? What are you doing here?

           AARON

What? Oh, yes, well, the thing is… I’m not Aaron…

           JASON

Wha-?! No of course you are! We’ve been friends since Primary School, I’d know you anywhere.

           AARON

Yes, that is why I have chosen to take this form… you see I am… kind of… your sub consciousness… I mean while your body is trying to figure out what happened to you, I’m here… y’know… making sure you don’t go insane…

           JASON

(bewildered) What?

           AARON

Well, we think you were hit by a car, but we aren’t sure really, all we know is that you have been injured a lot and we are trying to repair you… in the meantime, I’m here to take care of you…

           JASON

(Still a little confused) OK… erm…

           AARON

Would you like to change to another bit of scenery… this white room thing is a bit boring don’t you think…

           JASON

Wait… You can do that?!

           AARON

Well yeah… let me see… would you like to go to your bedroom…?

INT. – JASON’S BEDROOM

JASON

(shocked) I… erm… no, it’s to strange, just put me back in the white room, I may go insane just trying to get my head around how you did that…

           AARON

Oh ok then…

INT. – WHITE ROOM

                AARON

Well would you like me to change to another person then… would that help? Maybe your brother Ben?

AARON changes into BEN

                BEN

Is this better, or would you like me to change to someone else?

           JASON

Erm… can you change to someone else, my brother will just annoy me after a while…

           Ben

OK then… erm… maybe Jimmy from Physics?

BEN changes into JIMMY

                JIMMY

Is that better?

           JASON

Erm… it’s Ok, but Jimmy is kinda ‘nerdy’ and he isn’t as fun as other friends… Why don’t you just change back into Aaron… At least I know that he won’t annoy me after a while…

           JIMMY

Fair enough… it’s your mind…

JIMMY turns back into AARON

                AARON

So, erm… what happened right before you lost consciousness…?

           JASON

Well I’m not sure, all I remember is turning a corner, then receiving a lot of pain in my side… and I hit the floor… Wait?! You said that I was hit by a car!

           AARON

Yes that is what we think, but we aren’t sure at the moment… I just wanted to see if you had anything to add to what we have ‘on file’.

           JASON

Oh, Ok then? What files would they be?

           AARON

Well the files detailing all of what your body receives, whether that be information, pain, or even a little thing like if you notice a bug on the floor…

           JASON

So are you saying that my mind is like one big filing cabinet… like in ‘Bruce Almighty’ when he opens the filing cabinet for all of his thoughts?

           AARON

(Surprised) Erm… Yes… wow, you grasped that concept easily… usually people take a while to get their head around it (laughs).

           JASON

Yeah well, this is a dream or something anyway… I’m going to wake up in my bed anytime soon and this whole weird thing will be over…

           AARON

Ah, I see… you’re in denial still… don’t worry we can soon fix that…

AARON walks over to JASON and grabs his arm

           JASON

What are you doing?!

AARON pinches JASON – who cries out in pain

           JASON

What did you do that for?!

           AARON

I’m showing you that you aren’t asleep… the quicker you realise that… the quicker we can get some reliable information from you and get you back to normal!

           JASON

(Shocked) Oh… erm… Ok then, well I was doing a lot of Chemistry Course-

           AARON

No, we don’t need all that; we just need the information just before you lost consciousness…

           JASON

Oh, right, OK then… well I ran around a corner too fast and didn’t realise the car was there… it hit me on my left side and I think I hit my head on the way down… the last thing I remember was staring up at the sky…

           AARON

(Cheerfully) OK… Is that it?

           JASON

Yeah I think so…

           AARON

Well that is very good Jason, lots of people can’t remember much, or they remember crap that may not even be true…

           JASON

Oh… well, erm… thanks?

AARON

Don’t worry about it, now your body will take around eight weeks to heal your cuts, bruises and broken bones…

           JASON

Wait?! What?! I’m not that badly injured am I?!

           AARON

Well… erm… yes you are…

           JASON

Why can’t I feel the pain now then?!

           AARON

Well I kept the pain at bay, so that you could stay unconscious and we can set to work repairing your body… When you wake up, you will feel horrible and you will need to get to hospital as soon as possible… You never know… you may have already been taken there… I’ve been talking to you this whole time so I have no idea…

           JASON

What?! NO! I want out! Get me out of here! (starts banging walls and getting irate) I want to get to a hospital NOW!

           AARON

Ok…

QUICKLY FADES TO WHITE

 

EXT. – INDUSTRIAL UNIT – AFTERNOON

A point of view shot – from JASON – is looking up at the sky with many people crowding around JASON.

Shot List for Lifeless

Shot list for Lifeless.

Shot No.	Shot type, Camera angle, Description.	Duration (Approx. Sec).
1	Over the shoulder shot from Aaron’s perspective. He is walking down a corridor into a school ICT suite.	10
2	Canted angle, showing 2 shot of Aaron and Jason (Jason is in the foreground working at a computer).	7
3	Back to the over the shoulder shot, we can now see that Aaron is looking at Jason. They start to talk.	5
4	Back to the canted angle shot as Jason realises the time and starts to pack things away.	5
5	Over the shoulder shot from Jason’s perspective. As he passes Aaron the camera stops moving with him and looks at Aaron’s expression.	5
6	Point of view shot from Aaron’s perspective as Jason runs out the door and shouts behind him.	2
7	As music starts, there is a close up of Jason as he leaves the suite and starts to run home.	3
8	Over the shoulder shot as Jason runs and decides on which road to take.	5
9	Close up, low angle shot of his feet as he runs past the camera (X2).	3 (X2)
10	Point of view shot as he decides whether to go down an archway (to an industrial unit).	3
11	Zoom in on Jason as he runs down a slope into the industrial unit.	3
12	Over the shoulder shot as he makes his way through the unit.	5
13	Shot of a car speeding around the corner from Jason.	3
14	Point of view shot as Jason runs around the corner and gets hit by the car (music stops). Finishes with Jason looking up at the sky and it fading to white.	15
15	Title appears on white background.	3
16	Big close up fades in and Jason opens his eyes.	15
17	He gets up ‘into’ a medium close up, the camera very quickly pulls out, does a 180 degrees rotation around Jason and then pushes in to the back of Jason’s head.	15
18	Medium close up shows Jason very confuse as he shouts “Where am I?!” the camera then turns 90 degrees as Aaron appears and explains.	7
19	A mix of over the shoulder shots and low angle shots as they are talking to one another.	4 (X6)
20	A close up of Jason as the room changes behind him.	3
21	Over the shoulder shot while Aaron explains.	7
22	Medium close up of Jason as the room changes back.	3
23	Medium close up of Aaron as he turns into Ben.	4
24	Over the shoulder shots as the boys talk.	3 (X3)
25	Medium close up of Ben as he changes into Jimmy.	3
26	Over the shoulder shot from Jimmy’s perspective while they talk.	6
27	Medium close up of Jimmy as he changes back into Aaron.	3
28	A mix of over the shoulder shots and low angle shots as they are talking to one another.	4 (X8)
29	Eye-line shot from behind Aaron as he walks over to Jason and pinches him.	6
30	A mix of over the shoulder shots while they are talking.	4 (X12)
31	A slow press in happens while Aaron explains that they “kept the pain at bay…”	13
32	A quick pull out happens while Jason starts shouting and getting irate.	4
33	Medium close up of Aaron as he says “OK…”	1
34	Extreme close up of Aaron’s fingers as he snaps them.	1
35	Fades to white.	2
36	A point of view shot fades in, from Jason’s perspective is shown (detailed in the script)	5
37	Black, credits fade in/out while cars and other noises are heard in the background.	10
		Total: 301 (5 min 1 sec)