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.