Production Log - Murder Mystery

Friday 10th May
Today we got into our groups and we discussed what we should do as our murder mystery show. We decided to go with a show that was similar to Breakfast club as we could use the things at college as set and props. We then assigned everyone something to do over the weekend that could help with the film. We had originally planned to go with a house party style but then we had thought of a better idea and the other group where doing a house party for their murder mystery so we had to change to add variation which was when the detention style murder mystery which we developed further during the lesson was an idea for us to do. We had come up with a rough story arc of the film which can be further developed when creating the script. We also came up with the types of characters that we would be including in our show.
Sunday 12th May
Today I produced the props list of everything in the the two scenes that we will require. This was the job that I was assigned to do on Friday. I did this so that we know what we need to get and this list can get edited as we go depending on whether we decide to add more props depending on how Joe who was writing the script envisioned everything to go. I could only do my job if Joe communicated with me correctly as he knew what props he wanted and i only knew the basic props that there would be so i could not finish the props list without Joe.
Tuesday 21st May
Today i started the budget breakdown for the props and equipment for our short film as Joe, Jack, Mia and Kira all were not in so there was not much that we could each do so I thought that the budget breakdown was something that i could do without all of them. The budget breakdown is a needed piece of pre-production although we may not have the budget to go out and buy all the new props it is still a required piece of pre-production as we had to act like we were actually going to be shooting this murder mystery like a real production team shooting a high budget murder mystery.
Thursday 23rd May
Today we had a group meeting where we discussed the whole story-line of our short film as many of us did not know what was happening in the story-line and also many of us did not get any input into what we had done as Joe had gone off to do the script and he had not asked any of us for our input which we all expected him to do. We managed to all get input into the new story-line that we were going to be doing which was good as we spoke about how the murder is going to happen as our main topic of focus. We also discussed all the characters and the motives that they would have for killing as well as what each of the characters is like and now we understand reasonably well what our story is about and we all have tasks that we need to do before we can actually start production. Having a large group meant that pre-production was easier on us as it meant that we had much less to do per person and the workload was spread out as best as possible although Joe had the most pre-production to do as he was the one that had all our ideas and knew how the story was going to pan out. We had previously spoken about changing the story line in our group chat so that we could let Joe know in advance so he didnt waste time writing a script that would not even get used as the story line would be different. This meant that we each could have a say in what the story line was like
Wednesday 29th May
Today i worked on my props list and the budget breakdown for my groups production so that we know what props we need and how much the overall cost of the production would cost so that if we were actually producing our murder mystery we would have the right paperwork.
Tuesday 4th June
Today I worked on the talent release for my group and i got them all to sign it so that i can scan it into the system and have it there so there is less to be done before we start filming. We also went to the locations that we intend on filming at so we know what they are going to be like when we are filming in there and we took pictures so we can add it to the location release.
Friday 7th June
Today we managed to film a large amount of scene 2 within the limited time that we had  although it took us a while to get to a productive manner. A difficulty that we faced throughout filming that many of us noticed is that Kira was not putting in enough effort like we had expected. This was a difficult to work around as we had to re-shoot many scenes that she was in as she had not done something in the way that we had said.
Tuesday 11th June
Today the only people we had available for filming was Me, Matt, Jake and Joe as the other three people were occupied. We managed to film a small segment of scene 2 that just required Jake during filming which helped us as it got rid of a small scene that we would not have to film when we had the full production team. The small segment of the scene that we filmed was Jake going to Tesco during his break which was his Alibi.
Thursday 13th June
Today we had to re-shoot some of the beginning of scene 2 as Jake had got a haircut so we did not want to risk having continuity errors so we re-shot a few of the shots but then after looking back we noticed that his hair was not much different to before so we could get away with not re-shooting as much as we thought we would have to. We also managed to film where all the characters went and did their separate things during the break which meant that we had finished filming our scene 2. During this day of filming we encountered that Kira was not putting in enough effort with her acting which we had hoped would of changed from the previous time we recorded with the whole group.
Friday 14th May
Today we started off by filming a small flashback that showed Matt seeing Kira doing a drug deal with the drug dealer which was Joe. During the drug deal scene we included a variation of shots, one of which was a POV shot which helped to show the characters perspective before cutting to a mid shot to show the characters reactions to what is happening. This small part of the scene was very quick and easy to get out the way as everyone acting in it knew what they were doing which meant that we could go onto filming the whole of scene 8 as we were already behind schedule on when the filming of our show should have been done. A problem that we encountered today was that Jake had overslept and that made him extremely late for filming today which was not extremely bad as we started by filming something that he was not in but it wasted a little bit of time as we sat there waiting for him without any notification that he was going to be late. After filming this we went into the college and filmed the rest of scene 8 which was not as difficult to film as the pace of scene 8 was very slow so we did not need a wide range of shot types which meant that filming was much easier.
Tuesday 18th June
Today we began the editing process and started looking through all the clips and we noticed that Joe's camera work was not very good as many of the shots where out of focus and blurry and also there were many shots that were over exposed. This makes the editing process much longer for us as we will either have to re-shoot or fix the over exposed lighting in Premiere pro. I managed to get the majority of scene two roughly edited but i still have to add a few more shots that I did not add before and add a few shots that I did not have on my system.
Thursday 20th June
Today in Sujatas lesson i managed to finish editing my scene 2 as well as doing my editing decision list for scene 2. During editing i only used jump cuts as many of the characters are in different locations and they are doing separate things to each other. I have not added music or colour corrected the piece as this is only the rough edit.I although when going into the flashback where you see the drug deal i have used a fade into it and a fade out of it as it shows them remembering when it happened.
Friday 21st June
Today I finished editing my scene 8 by adding in a few more clips to add more of a variation between shots so that is was not one single stationary shot and it adds pace to the scene making it feel the scene is much shorter than it actually is. I also incorporated the flashback scene by having it fade in and out and also included dialogue over the top so that the audience can fully understand that it is a flashback.
Tuesday 25th June
Today I did not do very much as i was exporting the rough cuts of scene 2 and 8 which meant that there was not much that i could do on premiere pro so i worked on my production log for the majority of my two lessons. This meant that i could catch up on my production log and have that up to date so i did not have to rush and do it at the very end. I also began editing my trailer but due to limited time i wa only able to add one clip, the music that I am using and two title cards. The music that i am using is Bell Bottoms as it builds up and then during the fast paced part of the song i can edit my action scenes to be cutting between one another quickly. This means that the song and what is happening on screen correlate in some manor.
Thursday 27th June
Today I worked on completing my trailer showing as many different shots that i can without ruining the plot of the story so that the viewers of the trailer would actually want to watch it. Using many different shots means that the viewers get to see a good example of what the short film includes so that they can make there own judgement on whether they would be willing to actually go and see it.
Tuesday 2nd July
Today i finished editing my trailer for the murder mystery as i just needed to finish editing the audio so that it ended when the trailer ended as well as editing the levels at which the audio came out at so it would be quiet when it needed to be and all the audio transitions where smooth. I also started my title sequence but i came to the realisation that we did not film a large variety of shots so i have to re-use many of the clips which i would prefer not to but I have to. For my title sequence i took inspiration from the Brooklyn 99 title sequence as i feel it is a good way to show the characters and who is playing them. I did not know fully on how to add some colour to the background so i had to do some research on how to do it and i also asked Leon if he knew which he did and he was able to show me how i could do it. For this is needed to create layers of the actual shot and a colour in between the layers as well as a legacy title. The quality of the cutting out could be better but i was on a limited time so i could not spend ages on it.
Thursday 4th July
Today i continued on editing my Title sequence to the point that it is basically finished but there is still a little more to add. I have been changing the background color so that it is not the same over and over again and it adds variety.
Friday 5th July
Today i finished editing my title sequence as that was the last thing that i needed to edit but i did encounter a roadblock as i had to cut out the background of a still image but it took a while longer as it would not work so Leon had a good plan of adding another layer of purple to cover the space that i was unable to cut out. I also managed today to check through and make sure that i am happy with the four pieces of work and also export each one of them as the deadline is at 4pm today. Whilst i was checking scene 2 i noticed that a clip should have been sped up a little as it felt very slow for a violent part of the film. I did not have any rough cuts of the Trailer and Title sequence as i edited them as i got feedback from peers.

Production Log - Paper Boy

Production Blog
Tuesday 26th February
This was the day that we were put in to our production groups and i was put with Matt and Lewis which i was happy with as i knew that they would have some good ideas for our short film and also as i knew that they would get the film done to the best of our abilities. We discussed and pitched our ideas to the others to try and decide on what our story was going to be about and we decided that Matts idea was the best to go with so we went with it.
Thursday 28th Febuary - Tuesday 12th March
Me, Matt and Lewis had been doing pre-production over this period of time and we had made sure that everyone had a section of pre-production to do each. Over each of these three days at college Matt was working on the script, I was working on the props and costume list, the budget breakdown and also the talent and location release. Over these three days Lewis did the films that we took inspiration from he also started the storyboard and finished it over the weekend.
Monday 4th March - Thursday 7th March
We have been messaging in the group chat that we have with many ideas of things that we can implement into our short film ranging from different shot types and also ideas for the story line expanding on what we already had which helped a lot as we all put in some ideas into the short film. Also over this week we have been going through everything in more detail during Sujatas lessons as well as completing the pre-production that was required for us to complete so that we could film. In this week we managed to complete the rest of the pre production that was required.
Friday 8th March
We met up that day and filmed a large majority of our film from 7:00 am till 3:30 pm during this time we manged to film scenes 1 - 3 as the remaining scenes we did not have to shoot at Matts house or in the area of Matts House. We filmed Scene 1 Which was all set in Lewis' house (Matts House) all in this day. We also Filmed scene 2 which was set around Matt's House in the local area and at the local corner shop. We also managed to film scene 3 which was the scene in the creepy house and this house was next door to Matts house. We also filmed more clips on that day but I had to cut them out in the editing stage due to the time limit that i had.
Tuesday 12th March
We had began discussing on another way to end our film as we feel that we will not be able to do the torture scene as we cant make time to go and film it in the garage at Matts house and so we decided that we could do a torture scene in Manacroft park during college hours as it meant that we could have everyone there that we needed to be there.
Thursday 14th March
Me and Lewis managed to film the college scene during Sujatas lesson with Jake, Luke and a few extras as Matt was not there during the lesson.
We then went to Manacroft park during the period after lunch with Ethan and we filmed the torture scene at the park which went very well and we were able to film it all in that limited time as some of us had lessons after that period.
Friday 22nd March
On this day we had Sujata and the rest of the class watch our short films and from this the class and Sujata gave me constructive criticism and how my film can be improved and so i took in everything that people had said would improve my film and i tried to include and change what people said didn't work and what they said worked and also what they recommended i included.
Editing
After we had finished with the filming I began to edit during the lessons that we had and I also spent time after college to edit so that I can make the deadline for the rough cut.
After receiving feedback on the rough cut I am now re-editing based on the feedback that I received.
Tuesday 23rd April - Friday 26th April
Over these past three days in lesson I have been making amendments to my short film after receiving the feedback so that I can improve my grade and as I feel that what I originally had was not done to the best of my abilities and that I had a large amount of room to improvement to make. The improvement that i needed to make was to mainly add audio as there were many sections that had no audio which was not meant to be like that but it was there. This meant that the short film felt very long and it dragged but when i added the music it made the film flow much smoother and it did not feel as long as it did before.
Thursday 2nd May
Today i have worked on my re-editing scene 4 and scene 5 as they need very little done to them so I have just added the audio to them which makes the short film so much better than it was. I have then added them to my final version of the film and I have exported it.
Friday 3rd May
Today I have worked on making sure that my film is at the final stage which it is so i have exported it and left it in my student homework drive and i have also completed myself evaluation of Paper boy.

The Office

The Office (2005-2013) Many Directors

The office is an American sitcom that is set in a paper company and it follows co workers in an office. It is a single camera production so the show does not contain many complex shots.

The clip starts of with a title card saying the name of the show. It then cuts to a mid shot of the character Dwight putting his foot up onto his desk suggesting to the audience that there are no boundaries in the office and also it is showing the setting. It then cuts to a two shot where one of  Dwight's co workers is looking at what  Dwight is doing in disgust to so that the audience know that the other people in the office do not like what he is doing and it also shows the audience that Dwight is not doing this secretly. It then zooms into the co workers face so that it is a close shot and we can see his reactions before cutting to a close up shot of Dwight's foot trying to pick a pencil up this tells the audience what the other actor is looking at. The camera then zooms out back to a mid shot of Dwight so that the audience still know that it is him. The shots then alternate between the two men as they have a conversation with each other we know this as they are following the 180 degree rule and each shot is a mid shot as they are sitting at desks so we can only see from their torso. All the shots that have been used in this scene are hand held shots as there is a slight wobble on the camera in every shots which helps the realism as it makes it feel as if you are someone who is in the show. 

Live for the story

Live for the story (2017) Unknown director

This advert that was made by canon is a single camera production that is showcasing their cameras. It shows the journey of a young boy growing up and how Canon cameras are a perfect way to document them growing up.

The advert begins with a close up shot of a baby boy as that is where every bodies  life begins.It then cuts to a long shot dolly shot of the young boy running away from the camera but the camera is following him to show that he is growing up as he is able to walk now which is the effect that is given to the audience. We then see a close up shot of the boy after he opens the door and the camera pans up which is a transition that shows that the boy is growing up as we then see the boy looking older which tells the audience that the panning up was to show that he is getting older. We then get an establishing shot of the house that the boy is in before it quickly cuts to an establishing shot of the street that the boy lives on which is telling the audience that he is starting to explore now that he is older. It then cuts to a mid shot of the boy from behind before going back to a close up of the boys face to show the boys reaction to the bike. We then see a mid shot of the boy riding the bike down the street from his side before it then cuts and we see a birds eye view of the boy riding his bike down the dark street and whenever he goes further he lights the street up implying that he or anyone can bring brightness into peoples lives. We then see a mid shot transition to a long shot and the boy has grown up even more and we see three people around a car beckoning him to come over to them.We then see a birds eye view shot that is very similar to the birds eye view shot of him riding his bike but this time it is in the forest and he is in a car which shows that he is even more grown up as he is in a car and he is exploring further. We then cut to an over the shoulder shot of the man speaking before the camera pans to two girls in the back laughing which suggests to the audience that these two girls are his friends. We then see a POV shot of a girl running before it quickly cuts to a shot that tracks the man running and they are both smiling suggesting that they are having fun and chasing each other as he tries to splash her. Throughout the advert we see the boy creating light from darkness suggesting that he is bright and happy to the audience and that people can brighten up your life with the littlest of things even if you have a dark point in your life.

Supersize Me

Supersize Me (2004) Morgan Spurlock
This documentary is a single camera production where it follows a man who eats only Mcdonalds for a month to see the harm that can happen to someone body. They do not use many complex shot types as they are trying to inform as there main goal of the documentary.

The trailer for the documentary starts with an over the shoulder shot of Morgan Spurlock ordering a Mcdonalds at the drive through to show the audience what is happening in the documentary. It then cuts to a close up shot of him eating the Mcdonalds and looking very unhappy as if to show that the outcome is going to be very bad and he is not going to enjoy eating so much Mcdonalds. It then cuts to a mid shot of him sitting down on the sofa looking very sad because of the effects that Mcdonalds is causing him. It then cuts to along shot of Morgan with a doctor to show that he is getting medical help during the time that he is eating the Mcdonalds and to show what the effects of eating this much Mcdonalds can do to your body. It then cuts to another close up shot of another doctor to show the audience that he is getting more than one person giving him medical advice as well as showing a shot where there are statistics of his body. It then shows a mid shot time lapse of him eating the Mcdonalds as that is what the documentary is about. It then continues to show Morgan with a doctor as eating the Mcdonalds is very damaging to the body. We then see a low angle shot of him on a treadmill to show the lengths that he has to go to so that the audience can see what he has to do so that he can complete what he has started. It then cuts to more shots of Spurlock with a doctor which emphasis how bad Mcdonalds is for your body when you eat it so often. The majority of the shots that were used in the trailer were shots that were used to show how bad Mcdonalds and the health problems that can be caused by eating so much of it.

Look Back At It

Look Back At It (2018) A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie Directed by JMB
They have used a wide variety of shot types and angles in this music video but the music video was only set in two locations so it may not have been as complicated to make as it may seem. It is a single camera production as the video was all made with a single camera which you can tell as there are no complex shots in the video.

This music video begins with and establishing shot of a house that is presumed to be the house that the music video is getting shot in. It then cuts to a master shot of the living room that the mum and dad are sitting in as the dad watches TV and the mum reads a newspaper. The lighting in these shots start off very dark which connotes that everyone is very sad and dull. It then cuts to a close up shot of the dad watching TV. it then cuts to a long wide shot of the child getting up from his bed. The lighting in this shot connotes that the child is much happier than the parents. It then cuts back to a mid shot of the mother who looks as if she is putting on a fake smile which suggests that she is not actually happy. It then back to the child looking into a mirror but then it cuts to a long shot of him going to pick up his guitar which suggests that he is creative. It then quickly cuts to a close up shot of the father and by the expressions on his face you can tell that he is very annoyed that his child is playing the guitar so we then see the father marching up stairs with the use of a long shot. We then see a high angle shot of the child which makes the audience feel as if he is very under powered. It then goes to a low angle shot of the father which suggests that the father is the one that has all the power in the house. It then cuts back to the master shot of the mum and dad in the living room. It then cuts to a long shot of the mother walking out of the from room and the quickly cuts to the boy walking around his bedroom starring at the the TV suggesting that something will happen as he is so focused on it. It then cut to a mid shot where the boy is getting teleported into a classroom. It then cuts to a high angle shot of a girl who I presume is in the same classroom on her phone which suggests to the audience that they are not actually learning. It then cuts to a slow motion mid shot of the boy getting a paper ball thrown at him but he is enjoying it which says that he is happier being in this fake school then being at home with his parents. It then cuts to the same girl flicking her hair behind her shoulder from a mid shot which then says to the audience that this girl is important in the story line of the music video. It then shows a panning shot of more students in the classroom so that the audience can see the mentality of the classroom.

Brooklyn Nine Nine

Brooklyn Nine Nine (2013-Present) There are multiple directors of Brooklyn Nine Nine
Brooklyn Nine Nine is a crime sitcom that follows what it is like for police detectives in Brooklyn New York as they solve crimes but they have a comedic aspect to it. Brooklyn Nine Nine has been aired on many different channels but it was originally aired on Fox but it has now been put on streaming sites like Netflix and Youtube. I have decided to use an iconic scene where one of the main Characters has decided to use the song "I want it that way" to find a criminal as the witness only knows his voice.

The scene starts of with an over the shoulder shot of all the suspects as you have Jake talking to the witness about which one of the suspects that she thinks did it. It then cuts quickly to a two shot of the characters from a mid shot perspective as they continue to talk about the witnesses. It then cuts to a mid shot of the witness as she continues to describe what she knows about the murderer to Jake who is a detective. The scene then continues to use the mid shots, two shots, over the shoulder shots throughout the rest of the scene with constant cuts between the witness and Jake and also between the suspects as the scene of them singing keeps on going back and fourth. This scene contains very little to no camera movement as it is all set in two rooms of a police officer so there is not much room for the camera to move but there is the occasional bit of movement where the camera is focusing on suspect one and then it moves over to suspect 2. This scene shows that Brooklyn Nine Nine is a sitcom and crime genre as there is a detective who is trying to solve the crime of a murder but he is adding comedy to it by having the suspects sing so that the witness can say who the criminal is. They have managed to keep continuity in this scene as the lighting in both the rooms are kept the same so that the lighting is not different. The costumes that have been used for the Detective, the witness and the suspects have all been kept the same. The setting of this scene has been kept the same which helps the audience to feel that this is all happening at the same time. This all helps to add realism to the show as it feels real as there is continuity so it all feels smooth and like it is happening in real life. All the camera shots have been shot with a handheld camera as you can tell that there is a slight wobble on the shots but it helps to make it seem as if you were there and you were breathing.