DIRECTIONS: FILMING SCHEDULE

As we now are in the starting point of our production weeks, I am currently preparing a schedule so that i know what i have to film and on what days. I am filming on Monday 13th and Tuesday 14th of February, i believe this will be more than enough time as long as i am fully prepared. I am filming one scene on the Monday and then the other 2 scenes on the Tuesday. Below is a brief outline of what i will be filming on each of the days

Monday 13th February
-This will mainly be in the kitchen where my main character Vee is talking to her mother
-She comes downstairs and starts cooking some breakfast, her mother is sitting on their dining table eating and reading the newspaper
-Vee starts to bring up how her friend has fund put by from her parents to go to University with, her mother shows a disinterest at this, she doesn't want her to go away and tells Vee that she's already got a place at a local college and can stay at home with her
-Reluctantly, Vee agrees and pretends that her mother is right and has a good idea

Tuesday 14th February
-Vee is in her bedroom, she is on her laptop and starts to open up her emails with her college acceptance letter
-She talks on the phone with her friend about a new game called Nerve then she opens the game up on her laptop and the phrase "Are you a watcher or a player", this is a metaphor for someone living inside of their comfort zone in life, and someone living outside of it
-Also, i have to film Vee going into her dead brothers bedroom, she looks at his room and pictures of him, this makes her upset looking at pictures of him
-Vee leaves her house, after talking to her mother (what is being filmed on Monday) in anger, we see her riding a bike to a field, she suddenly stops and sits down in anger, sighing at the frustrating situation she is in
-Her laptop starts playing "Are you a watcher or a player" again from inside her bag, she gets it out and press's player
-Wondering if what she has done is the right thing, she calls her friend and announces to him that she is a player

DIRECTIONS UNIT: PRE PRODUCTION DEVELOPMENT

high key lighting

Over the past few weeks, we have had a range of different workshops on lighting, editing, sound and general directing workshops. From these workshops we learn more about the art of directing and what is needed to successfully direct a production. This has also taught and extended our knowledge as to what directing involves and emphasises the amount of work that a director has to do.

3 point lighting

In terms of lighting, we were able to try a range of different lighting set ups to help us decide what set ups, if any, we would like to use within our own production. This included

- Three Point Lighting; a standard method used in visual media, it involves using three lights, a key light, a fill light and a back light to light an object within a scene.

- High Key Lighting - a style of lighting for film television or photography that aims to reduce the lighting ratio present in a scene, originally it was used for technological reason, but it is now used to suggest an upbeat mood, normally present in comedy dramas or sitcoms.

DSLR

Using lighting within productions is vital to all aspects, its vital for the story and vital for the mood. Within my production of Nerve i would prefer to use purely natural light, i want to try and create something that is very raw and clean cut, i want it to bring a sense or realism to the audience and for that i believe natural lighting would be best. Any lighting issues i do have i will endeavour to rectify in post production.

Moreover, we have had a range of camera workshops, including on Sony EX's and PMW's as well as DSLRs. DSLRs are very effective as they are light, portable and can have very good lenses to produce very high quality pictures. However, my one issue with a DSLR is sound, its more difficult to catch the specific sound that you want to capture with a DSLR, and sound is such an important part of the production that i wouldn't want to use a DSLR. Also, i feel far more comfortable using a Sony as that is what i have most experience using and that is what i feel more at ease for my production to go smoothly.

Sony PMW

DIRECTIONS UNIT: TV DIRECTOR RESEARCH

Jack Bender, born September 25th 1949, is an American television and film director, best known for his work on Lost and Game of Thrones. Bender studied art at an LA college, he then went into action, appearing on shows such as The Mary Tyler Moore Show, after this he began directing and producing a range of different shows. His biggest credit will be the ABC TV Series Lost, overall he directed a massive 38 episodes across the whole series, more episodes than any other director, and he was the executive producer across the board. His other credits include

- Game of Thrones

- The Last Ship

- The Sopranos

- Under the Dome

- Alcatraz

Due to the amount of shows that Bender has directed, he has come to have a very specific directorial style. Firstly, before looking at visuals, Bender has a very good handle on episodes of shows that involve some sort of time travel. The most prominent is an episode of Lost entitled 'The Constant', which involved the character of Desmond time travelling. Bender notes how he didn't want to do any gimmicky transitions or 'star trek dissolves and wipes', he wanted it to look very honest, and he did that through close up shots and then simply black editing cut to transition into the different time. The close up shots illustrates the emotion that a character goes through and therefore adds to the drama, something that Bender believes is far more valuable for an audience, than any gimmick.


The idea that Bender cares more about the emotion within an episode is mirrored in his more recent work on the last two episodes of season six of Game of Thrones. This is one of the most successful and famous shows in TV interest, and Bender to go in and direct when he never has before, he wanted to make his mark. Within his episode, one of the much loved characters of the programme Hodor, was to be killed by an army of the dead. However, Bender did one shot in that scene, where the camera moves closer in to Hodor and his face, as the army of the dead are pulling at his flesh.
Benders work is a huge inspiration to me and highly influences my work. Using a range of different close up shots to convey emotion, rather than focusing on the act that is making them feel that emotion instead, and it is something i defiantly have planned for at least one of my scenes in mu production.

DIRECTIONS; SOUND PRE-PRODUCTION

After our session with Simon, it got me to thinking about the sound design within my own production, what i want to do with my sound, and how i want to record it. The session with Simon made me realise the wide range of ways to record sound and put it into a film that there is.

Mainly, i would like to record my sound simply with a boom pole, most of my scenes involve purely conversational sound; in one my main character Vee is talking on the phone to her friend and in the other she is in her kitchen talking to her mother. The best way to capture this sound, in my opinion, is simply with a boom pole as i am filming. I believe that this is a better option rather than dubbing the sound in later, because it will add to the drama of the story to use the original sound.

I also have other sound within my production that may require special effects or dubbing in afterwards. This includes the sound from the game that Vee goes on her laptop, the voice i need to use for this needs to sound somewhat computerised, and so i will dub this in during post production rather than during production. Also, within the last scene i have to film, it will be taking place outside, so i will firstly be sure to record about a minute of location sound as well as possibly some special wind effects.

DIRECTIONS: SOUND DESIGN

What is sound design?
Sound design in film and television essentially describes the process of capturing layering and mixing of individual sound elements to create one single soundtrack for the project. Just as you shoot and edit the image part of the project, you also shots and edit the sound part too. Sound design occurs at all stages of a  production, but it is essential a post-production phase, this process is also called the Sound Edit.

The Sound Designer
Originally, all the sound editing of a film was completed by a sound editor or a team of sound editor. These were technicians who had little creative input into the project., this new supervising sound editor position became known as the sound designer. The first film to credit someone as the sound designer, was Apocalypse now by Francis Ford Coppola.

Sound Layers
The job of the sound designer is to assemble a number o flayers or tracks of sound, which are then mixed together to form one whole. On some production there might be 50 tracks of sound, however most commonly there will be between 5 and 20 tracks of sound. There are 7 different types of tracks that can be used
- Dialogue; this is all the recorded dialogue from the actual shoot. Voice over would be a separate track.
-Sync; this is recorded sound from the shoot that ISN'T dialogue, IE someone walking across a room or getting into a car
-ADR; automatic dialogue replacement, this is all of the dialogue re-recorded or dubbed after the shot. Nearly all Hollywood films use ADR for the whole film.
-FX; Certain sound effects for elements such as a car engine, a computer, or an explosion. These will be recorded specifically for the production or more commonly they will come from a sound FX library.
-Foley; any sound that is created for the purpose to replace sound within a film
-Atmos; all the sound elements that make up an atmosphere for a particular location. This could mean weather elements like rain,
-Music; this is all the music in the film, diabetic music on a radio or someone playing an instrument within a scene, and non diegetic which is all the composed music places over the film, also know as the score. 

The Sound Edit
Thought the sound edit phase, the sound designer and the team will compile all the tracks, editing the various sounds to the picture, making creative decisions all the time. The sound is cut just like the picture and can be done in PP, but most commonly done using specialised sound editing software.
The Mix - once the the tracks have all been compiled and edited to the locked picture, the will be edited all together to form the one final track to be used in the entire film, this is known as the mix. The mix enables all the sounds to be balanced with each other and the picture to create the perfect soundscape.

The Art of Sound Design
The art of sound design is to add depth, feeling and emotions to the picture, its about making it feel right, so the audience believe in what they are seeing. Even if the story is set on an alien world, it should sound RIGHT. Great sound design can add details the audience can't actually see. A clock ticking in a room, a bird high up a tree etc.

DIRECTIONS UNIT: PRODUCTION DEVELOPMENTS

As we get closer to filming time for my production in a few weeks, i have started all of my preparations and started to finalise locations, casting and any props that i will need (as well as visual material). The script is completed and i have started to draw and write out some storyboards and shot lists, which will hopefully make the actual filming process a lot more smoother and make sure that everything will be completed on time

LOCATION
I have 3 different locations, 2 of which are now finalised and the other is in the process. I have 2 different houses to use (though for the actual film they are the same house), one of which i will be using for my main characters, Vee, bedroom, and the other i will be using for they're kitchen. The reason i am using a different house for the kitchen is because i prefer the structure of the other houses kitchen, there is 2 big windows and one back door enabling a lot of natural light to come through, which is something i want and it is a kitchen and dining room in one, which is perfect for me to get all of the shots that i want and need to get

CASTING
My main character Vee, i have cast, through mutual friends i have casted someone who has an interest in acting and will hopefully bring this interest to the role. The role of Vee's mother is more of a tricky one to cast but i am currently searching and advertising on Casting Call Pro for this role and hope to have somebody cast soon. I would like to use a semi-professional actor from Casting Call Pro as the role is for an older women, i believe they will bring a sense of authenticity and maturity to the production as a whole.

PROPS AND VISUAL MATERIAL
The main prop and visual mateiral that i need for this role is family photos, i will be able to obtain these from the main character who i have casted; these will be pictures of her so they will all fit together when filming. The main obstacle that i find in this, is creating the graphics for the Nerve video game, and so to overcome this i have decided to instead of filming the graphics, i will record sound only for it and instead film Vee's reaction to it.

DIRECTIONS RESEARCH: LUTHER

Luther is a British Crime Drama programme starring Idris Elba, like many different television programmes, the show alternates within its directors, some come in to direct a one off whereas others come in for a block and stay for multiple episodes. Whilst they have different directors, Luther still has a particular directing style that flows throughout the series.Luther mostly alternates between establishing shots with discrete push in or out, so we have time to situate the characters in the environment they are in, very effective as characters are either in a  criminal environment or a police background, as well as warm close ups where the eyes are often enhanced.

Luther is a programme that through the use of different cinematography, creates an extremely high sense of realism. The most reoccurring shot within each episode of Luther, is a wide angle shot of an investigation room, due to the programme revolving around a police detective. This type of shot is interesting because in some scenes it helps to highlight the maverick side of the main character Luther. We see this shot as Luther investigates a criminal or one of his victims, whereas in some scenes we see this same shot, in the same one table and two chairs set up but in a different location, of someone appearing above Luther whilst he himself is slouched down in his chair; perhaps making him look like the criminal for once.  Another recognisable element of Luther is the colouring, each episode is very grey and dreary in colour, creating a very gritty and especially British feel to the programme.

Within my work, something that mainly inspires me is the colouring. The show itself uses mainly natural or low level lighting, nothing is too bright, everything is dim and sublime. This is an element i also would like to try and be an influence to my work.