Final Day of Filming in Sight

Jay, Rudi and I spend most of yesterday filming Jay's film (Dress Code) and a little more of Lifeless. This meant that Jay can finally edit his film together and I can do the same. The only issues we now have is that I am still missing one scene (which we will be filming on Sunday 7th) and that the film will be over the time limit that we were aiming for. By my calculations Lifeless will be closer to 10 minutes than 5. This means that I will create a Director's Cut version, and an edited version (for submission to the examiner), both of which will be uploaded to YouTube (and Blogger) either Sunday night or Monday morning. I have edited the rest of the film, we just need the last few shots from yesterday and the one scene that we are filming on Sunday and it will finally be finished. I would like to apologise right now for the long time it has taken to create the film - this was obviously due to many different obstacles that we encountered along the way. I would also like to thank Jay, Rudi, James, Ben and my dad for helping me out in the making of the film - especially because I am quite perfectionistic with my shot choices.

Almost There...

We are set to film the last two scenes for Lifeless on Monday 1st April. This will be an ideal opportunity for us to finish these few scenes, as I can then spend the evening editing the rest of the film so it can be hopefully uploaded to YouTube by Tuesday evening.

When thinking about the running sequence for the film, I decided that there are two ways it can be shown.

1. The sequence can be left as it is - that is the video is of my character running, while the song 'Deep Run' that a friend has produced for me plays in the background.
2. We can re-record the sound of the footsteps and cars to put over the top.

I will produce both of these versions and see which I prefer. When Rudi, Jay and I meet up on Monday, I will re-record the sound after we have finished the recording of the rest of the footage. That way, I can spend hours upon hours that evening 'playing around' with the footage and sound to make it perfect.

Problems... Again

We still need to film the last two scenes for Lifeless. We haven't managed to meet up recently due to Christmas, the New Year and exams coming up; but in a few weeks time we will be finishing filming and I will be able to edit it all together. I imagine that a first draft of the whole film will be ready in about a month or so's time. After looking at some of the footage, I have decided that I need to re-record some empty sound and some of the smaller sounds that are in the film (for example my gasp as I wake in the white room).

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.