Screenshots of my Film

So far this is how my film is looking, i love how drastically the colours change once he enters the mirror

Reshoots

After editing my material for 3 days i decided to call for a reshoot. I've very happy with the majority of my footage however the scenes shot on the first day of shooting do not match as well as i had hope. Therefore i reshot 2 shots and added in 2 wide shots so that there wouldn't be  any jump cuts in the final edit. My cast and crew were more than happy to come which i felt was a good vote of confidence. I still have 3 shots to film outside that i intended to put at the start of my film to contextualise the piece however it has not been sunny enough to film - if i filmed them now the weather would look drastically different and ruin the continuity. My camerawoman Annie-Rose is on standby over the weekend in case the weather chnages however it isn't any great loss if i dont get these shots filmed as my rough cut was over the 8 minutes allowed and i can see myself sturggling to cut it down. I'll post up screenshots of my film later today to show the progress from my original concept to how the film looks.

Day Two/Editing Process

Sorry that this is slightly belated but i've been consumed by the editing process. Day Two couldn't have gone better. The crew call was at 11 and we were finished by 6 in the evening. This was thanks to the efficient work by my actors and crew. I have some slight concerns over the green screening but i've been assured by my special effects artist Chris Thompson that it shouldn't be too difficult. The editing began 5 days ago and has been extremely difficult. It's been more difficult than usual because i shot using a DSLR however didn't mark in the sound as we have over 100 shots to film and there was very little time to spare. After about 30 hours i have virtually all the dialogue match up except one more scene. I'd say the overall edit is about 50% complete. It has to be with the composer by Tuesday by the latest, which gives me another two days to finish the rough cut. I'm not too worried as i intentionally went after the dialogue first and with another 5 hours on the rest of the dialogue i should have another day just to cut together the portal sequences. Once this is done i'll hand the footage over to Chris to put in the special effects, put the composition over the piece and it should be ready for the Odeon. My only concern is that if i make any changes to the rough cut, the composition might be off. However i've asked the composer Kevin McAleese to give me the tracks and if i do make any drastic changes i should be able to sync them up myself. I've spent a lot of time detailing to Kevin exactly what i want from the soundtrack and he is very confident he can deliver what im looking for. Kevin will have 6 days to finish the composition which i see as more than enough time.

Day One

So today was the first day of shooting. On the whole everything went very well. We got everything shot by 4:30 which allowed me to derig the set and talk down the rest of my crew. Chris is sending me the footage tomorrow, which i'll look at and decide if we need to reshoot anything. I've braced myself for the possibility of reshoots - we are attempting to utilize special effects which i've never done before and therefore i view reshoots as a likelihood. However considering other people in the class are reshooting scenes, this doesn't bother me too much - i'm lucky that Michael and my crew wouldn't mind having to reshoot a scene or two. Michael did a great job, couldn't ask for anything more from him - the same goes for the rest of my crew.

Now onto the future. I'm shooting the rest of the film on Sunday, so i'm making a checklist now of everything i have to get. I've got all the props, and virtually all the costumes. The tricky bit will be moving the props from BMC to Oxfam on the Ormeau Rd, but i'll figure it out. Im going to call the other actors tonight to confirm that they are ready to go for Sunday, just so everyone is on the same wavelength.

Another Busy Day

So today was the vital day i assumed it would be. It started off when i called the Oxfam shop that i had contacted last Friday at 10:30, they asked me to call back later in the afternoon to speak with another manager. I called them back at 2:30 and agreed a fee and a time scale with one of the managers. They seem like really genuine people and since im paying them, i know i'll have the entire shop to myself which makes shooting a lot easier. It sound crazy but by paying them i feel i have a lot of control over the shoot and this makes me a lot more comfortable and confident.

I met with Dale Morgan at 11:15 to bring in a large collection of props - dolls, a safe, a gothic mirror, i had it all. I spent around 7 or 8 hours building a set for the Wednesday shoot, the set now looks like the white room i wanted. However it's forced me to change the camera i intend to use, i'll pick up on this later. At 3 o clock i met up with an actor who was interested in playing the lead role. We sat talking about our favourite films before going over the script. He's a lovely guy and he brings a lot of intensity to the role, i'll have to direct him with his mannerisms but i'm ecstatic to have him on board. I contacted the actress i had scheduled to play the homeless woman and mentioned to her than she may be bumped up to the lead role if i couldnt find another actress in time. However after this i texted actresses i had used in previous film projects and luckily one of them seems to be able to help me out, she said she is free this Sunday and would be happy to do it - so im calling her tomorrow and going over the project and im quietly confident this will work out!

So yes, i've flip flopped again and i now intend to shoot on DSLR. Now that i know i have full control over both locations my primary reason for using a Z5 has gone. On top of this there wasn't enough boards to cover the floor, so im hoping to buy a white cloth and cover the floor in that - using a DSLR which has a shallow focal length, the audience wont be able to see the floor with clarity and will automatically assume it is a white board as well. Plus DSLR's look more cinematic and shooting on a SD card is ideal as logging footage can take an absurdly long time. The only issue will be syncing up/recording sound - i called my sound man Karol at 7 to discuss his thoughts on this change and he seemed cool with it. We figured it out on his shoot, so im sure we will figure it out on mine. If not, we are filming at BMC on Wednesday, so we can ask a tutor and have it sorted by the time we film on location.

Tomorrow will consist of buying cloth and masking tape (to tape over the gaps in the board), buying costumes in Primark, testing the special effects with Chris at 1 and then reccying the Oxfam/Antiques store at 2:30/3. So pretty much another busy day. However i'm actually not too stressed. Don't get me wrong, today was hell. Although i feel like the majority of the groundwork is done and now it's a case of optimising the quality of the project, more so than gathering the materials for the project to actually take place. Anyway, i have to go e-mail the actress the script and go over everything again to make sure i have forgotten something.

Progress

So this is the beginning of a very busy week. I went out on Saturday and bought a vase (to smash) and paints to make the two signs. I'm currently going over my script/prop list to make sure i haven't missed anything out. If i'm right and i have collected everything then i'll bring in all in tomorrow and store it in the radio studio so that i know where everything is. Tomorrow my crew will be working in the tv studio most of the day so that the set is ready for shooting on Wednesday. I'll also be meeting up with an actor who i hope to use for the main character. The two actresses that i selected to come in tomorrow and chat about the part still haven't e-mailed me to confirm that they are coming in, which is a little worrying - however i can always bump Kavita up to a main role and find another girl for the non-speaking 5 second shot. A small issue has come up. Tomorrow Oxfam will hopefully call me and confirm that i can shoot inside their store. The issue is that my camerawoman Annie-Rose can't take another Sunday off. I don't know what day Oxfam will allow me to film however if Sunday is closed then i have to take that opportunity. Thursday would have customers and would be a major inconvenience to myself and Oxfam. In the scenario that i take the Sunday i will bump Chris up to cameraman as he would only be used selectively for the special effects otherwise.

Update on the update

Busiest 3 days of my filmmaking life - 2 lead actors dropped out and then the primary location did as well. So i was mildly stressed. Rang around a pool of actors on Thursday, then two who i had previously considered spoke to me - long story short Michael Killen is coming in on Monday the 21st of May to read the script and get to grips with the project. The other actor who dropped out was playing the lead female role, so i went onto Gumtree, posted an advert and a day later selected the best two from that. They should hopefully becoming in on Monday as well. I went to reccie/rekkie/star treckie the primary location on Thursday when they told me that it had all of a sudden become a problem. They said they would have to clear it with the manager and that he would call me soon. So i gave them two days and when they still hadn't got back to me i rang around all the oxfam charity shops in Belfast. One of the Oxfam shops on the Ormeau Road said they could probably help, they couldn't see why it would be a problem. They are ringing me back on Monday to confirm that it is a go. Monday will be the big day then, Karol, Annie-Rose, Chris and myself will be set-building all morning while i intermittently interview actors and hopefully get a positive call from Oxfam. I'm away out now to buy props - WITH  MY FRIEND.