Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow..

Due to the sudden downpour of snow we are unable to film this week, as we were hoping to film on Wednesday 1st of December. Yet, since we have not been able to get into college to book a camera, and the fact that college is closed on this day then filming is a no go. However, we are hoping that the snow will be cleared up by next week and we will be able to film on Wednesday 8th of December. Since Wednesday is our only day that we are all able to film then we are hoping that we can do it on this day. We are just needing to film the final part of our film, which shouldn't be a problem, if the weather clears up.

Behind The Scenes - Entwined

Just a little behind the scenes footage, it involves a tour around Connor's house where a large portion of Entwined is Set.

Enjoy.

Filming Update 3

Filming at Connor's house today went well, we got all shots needed for the first two scenes of our film.

Editing of them has now commenced, Any updates about filming and editing will appear here on the PCF Productions blog.

Filming Update 2

Filming on Friday 12th November went without a hitch, as of yet we do not need to re-film, but if it is needed , the blog will be updated.

Equipment that we used

The camera that we use for editing is a SONY HVR-1000 which is not a cheap piece of equipment. We did have a slight advantage of using this camera last year in our AS project so we were already aware on how to use the camera. We have very minimal problems, and due to us only filming in one location, which is inside, the microphone on this camera was more than good enough for the quality of our film. Ergo, this meant that we did not need to use a Zoom Recorder to record sound separately.

One slight problem that we have had this year would be the amount of tape space that we have used. Despite only being a 5 minute film, we did manage to fill our tape more than once, meaning that we had to over ride some of our previous footage. However, since our shots which we had done previously were already on the computer ready for editing, this means that we were able to rewind the tape and go back over previous footage. However, if we would have had it our way then we would have had more than one tape, so there was no risk of actually over riding footage.

When it comes to editing our film, we use Final Cut Express which is already installed onto the mac computers at our college. One thing that I like with final cut express is the ease of being able to just cut shots and put them next to each other, and if it wasn't for Final Cut Express we wouldn't have had the effect that allowed the character of Ryan to disappear. It allows us to export in the highest possible quality and we very rarely have problems when it comes to editing our film.

Film Poster Research

Our research into family films has shown quite a few conventions that stay the same, but of course they aren't always present.

Family films generally have a bright , happy and sometimes humorous look, This suits the film genre very well. The example i found is for a decently recent film named "The Spy Next Door" which follows the conventions i have found very well.

Whereas there are a few differences for a film in the Family/Drama crossover genre, My example is that of Twilight , Which has lost all of the standard conventions such as Bright colours, Humor etc. And instead sticks with a dark and moody look.

Our film Poster may end up somewhere between both of these posters, With a dark and moody look yet with glimmers of hope such as smiles, and colour etc.

Filming Update 1

Our group are due to start filming on Friday 12th of November, Our first scene will be in the large back-room in college and will be a scene consisting of a news presentation, The only actor on set will be James Allen whom will be playing the Newscaster.

Any updates for filming will be shown on this blog.

Costumes

Below, I will go into depth about what costumes each character will be wearing. This will be pretty easy, compared to last year, as since we are making a modern film in the present day then it's just a simple matter of wearing the clothes that we would normally wear. However, some clothes will have to be planned, and it may be an idea to use certain colours on certain characters to show a feeling or how the character actually is.

Ryan Fogg

One thing that we have to make sure during the filming over the 2 days, is that Ryan's character wears the exact same clothes. Because he is turned invisible, he is unable to get changed, meaning that to keep continuity, he will have to have the same clothes he has on when he disappeared. An idea for Ryan's costume would be to have him wearing darkish clothing, some grey/black jeans and a grey/black top. This can then relate to Ryan being in mourning over the death of the grandfather and also that he is quite a dull and depressed character.

Lewis Fogg

For Lewis, as we are filming over 2 different days, he will have 2 different sets of clothes on. Lewis will be wearing a bright and vibrant coloured t-shirt on the first day, and a more neutral colour on the second day. Again, this relates to the death of the grandfather as him wearing a colourful t-shirt then it shows that the death no longer affects him and the colour shows that he is a generally more happy and popular character compared to Ryan.

Jayne Fogg

This character will again require two different costumes as we are filming over two different days. Jayne will be required to wear neutral colours, to show that she is the neutral character within the film and the link between the two brothers.

Robert Sutton

This character is probably the hardest character to plan for, in terms of costume. A news-presenter is stereotypically wearing smart clothing, so we plan to have the character or Robert Sutton wearing a shirt and a tie. Since the shot of Robert Sutton reporting the news, will be a Medium Shot sat at the desk so it is not too important about what this character wears on the lower part of the body.

Genre Research

Our particular film is hard to designate one particular genre. Below are 3 different genres of film which I believe are present in our film idea. These genres may well change when we look at the final product.
Drama
Our film sort of fits into the genre of 'Drama' as we see something problematic happens within the story, and it has to be resolved. A drama is typically revolved around real world characters looking at real world problems. You could argue that the invisibility part of our film is not something that is a real world problem, yet the idea of the twins being an argument and having a rivalry after the death of a family member is a real world problem.
Examples of drama films would be;
Citizen Kane, Forrest Gump, The Shawshank Redemption.

Family
A family film is specifically designed to appeal to everybody in the family. The film entwined could well be this as we have younger characters, (around age 17) which young children could relate to, but also adults could see their point of view. Family films are designed to be bright and happy for the younger audience, but also have wittier jokes that can attract an adult audience. Again, our film not be considered 'bright' and 'happy' but with little 'pranks', this could keep a younger audience interesterd, as well as having a serious audience.
Examples of family films would be;
Dr.Dolittle, E.T, Home Alone.

Mystery
The main storyline behind a 'Mystery' film is that something out of the ordinary happens, and one of the other characters has to try and 'solve this mystery'. An other key aspect of a mystery, is that the audience knows what is going on, where characters in the film do not, and this is something that we will be doing with our short film. This genre relates most to our film, even though the characters in 'Entwined' don't know that Ryan has disappeared, it is eventually the emotion of Lewis that brings him back. The genre of 'Mystery' can relate back to the family and drama genre.
Examples of mystery films would be;
Freaky Friday, Inception, Psycho.