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During today's seminar, we learnt about what the production workshop module is all about. I came to understand exactly what is expected of me to succeed in this module as we carefully went through the assessment briefs in much detail. I'm really looking forward to start brainstorming ideas for the short film and see those ideas and visions come to life with my crew during the next coming weeks.

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Today, we explored story development as a crew for the first time. I learnt that in order to create a successful short film, it's vital that we consider: characters, structure and the logistics. For me, I would personally like to do a short film surrounding a much darker theme, potentially following the 'overcoming the monster' plot out of the seven basic plots that we were given as this is what interests me the most out of filmmaking. Potentially delving into the battle one may have with themselves. However, it's still the first week, so this is something that I must discuss with the rest of my crew over the weekend on our group chat that we've created for effective communication before our next class on Monday.

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In today's class, the crew and I decided together on the confirmed story/plot for our short film. We then presented our logline and synopsis to the class - detailing the unexpected twists and turns of our assassin, agent 47, falling hopelessly in love with his own target, Charlie. The audience is left to interpretate the ending for themselves of whether or not he killed her. Next, we moved on to trying to decide which role everyone was going to have. Unfortunately, this is still something we have yet to decide on as Jake is insisting he takes on the producer role, yet San wants to act and we were informed during week 1.1 that only the producer was allowed to act. I'm hoping by the next class, we will have this sorted. Additionally, we have been regularly chatting in our group chat, attempting to decide on a location that we want to film in.

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Figuring out locations suit to film our project at:

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During today's session, we learnt all about the responsibilities that come with the director and producer roles. We explored how directors communicate their creative visions with not only the actors, but also the crew as a whole. They're ultimately in charge of: marking up the script, creating a storyboard, working with actors in rehearsals/on set and have the last say in a decision. On the other hand, we learnt the importance of the producer role and how they're in charge of: organisation, such as workflow and documentation, resourcing (securing locations, finance, health and safety etc), budgeting and scheduling. Without a producer or a director, the show would simply not go on!

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Today, we also decided on all of our roles as a crew:

Director: Robyn Varden

Producer: Jake Pearson

Camera: Hope Brett

Sound: Mia Johnson

Lighting: San Faiq

I'm really looking forward to being responsible for all of the camera work and am excited to see how much this project will develop my skills for the future.

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Today, we learnt all about visual style and its importance to provide information to tell the story. We explored: frame composition, framing, camera shot sizes/angles/movement, basic shooting techniques, colour and lighting. As my role for this project is working with the camera, I found this session incredibly useful and it's helped me to develop a deeper understanding of how visual style can have a dramatic effect on not just the audience, but the film itself and the ability to tell the story effectively.

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Our amazing director Robyn created a storyboard for our project as well which we all agreed would be immensely beneficial and helpful to us when writing our script which we plan on meeting up and doing as a group sometime this week before our next session.

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Today's session explored sound design and editing style. We learnt how important sound design is and how good sound recording is "invisible". If the sound quality isn't up to a high standard, then the audience isn't able to fully immerse themselves in the narrative world. In order to avoid any issues with audio, it's vital to always record room tone so there's always the option to cut to that if issues such as: weather, roadworks, internal noise on set etc ruin the audio. Without editing, the final product would be a disaster due to the lack of: pacing, flow, continuity, cuts, transitions and so fourth. I'm really looking forward to being able to take all of the clips/audio that we get and editing it in my own style and making the story my own, according to the director's vision.

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This morning's session was all about pre-production and the tasks that I must complete before we start production. It's vital that I have a meeting with our director (Robyn) to go through the marked script in order to establish the correct camera requirements needed for each scene to go with her visual style for our short film. This way I will be able to workout where to set up the camera in each scene and create a shotlist from the marked up script.

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Due to today's session being dedicated to independent study, my group and I decided today would be the best time to all meet up and write up our script. We all met in the library this morning and dedicated our time to the script and finalising any final decisions such as: visual style, storyline, costumes and shots. Although everyone was present and actively putting in their input, thoughts and ideas, I was given the role of actually writing the script. I got to use 'Fade In' and attempt to write up a script in a professional manner for the first time which was an experience I'm truly grateful for. Although I found it quite challenging at times, the whole group supported me throughout. I'm extremely happy with how it all came out and we're all looking forward to start filming!

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For my practical research, I decided to hire out a camera and practice using it. I recorded a few shots and practiced zooming in/out and focusing on different objects as I've not had much practice with this before. Although successful, I should have also practiced doing shots using the tripod as well.

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The file size was too large to include the exported version of my practice shots, but I've put them all together on Premiere Pro.

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The morning of our first shoot day started at 11am at my flat. Before everyone arrived, I set up the camera and tripod so I'd be ready to help set up all of the New Years decorations once Jake arrived with them.

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Unfortunately, an issue arose with our lighting set up. San - who's job role was lighting - failed to turn up with the necessary lighting equipment. Despite me explaining to him that we needed at least two Falcon Eye RX-12TD Flexible LED Light Kits, along with Aputure MC Compact LED Lights, he only showed up with three Aputure Compact LED lights. I then attempted to book some of the Falcon Eye RX-12TD Flexible LED Light Kits out, but unfortunately due to it obviously being last minute and extras already arriving on set, we were unable to do so. Fortunately, I already had two LED softbox photography lighting kits in the flat as these are what I use for filming my social media content which definitely made the set a bit lighter, however I fear that these won't be enough and that our film will still be far too dark as the curtains had to be closed to create an evening effect due to the film supposedly taking place at midnight.

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Another issue that we faced with lighting was that San didn't contribute to actually helping us light the set throughout filming as he insisted on acting in the short film instead. This then left me to have to be behind the camera as we were filming and then also light up the set between takes as Robyn was too focused on directing, Mia was far too busy with audio and Jake was also just talking to the extras throughout the shoot after he gathered all of their consent forms to allow us to film everybody.

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I was in charge of the camera for our short film, Midnight Target. Although not having much experience with using a Panasonic 180 Pro Camcorder before (despite our introductory to them during the first semester), I quickly got the hang of it and enjoyed being behind the camera. My practical research prior to us shooting was undeniably beneficial to me and I don't think I could have done it without that. Although I definitely still need to practice more as looking back, I've realised that I kept forgetting to white balance the camera, I feel like I did a relatively good job seeing as this was my first proper experience in doing so.

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Just like I did prior to everyone arriving at my flat on day 1, I set up all of my camera equipment and also the lights at 10am, so I was able to help everyone else if needed when they arrived at 11am.

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Day two of filming consisted of purely just us as a cast without any extras/other acting roles. We primarily focused on filming the scenes of San by himself, as well as the scene which Jake volunteered to act in as a small comedy element to an otherwise serious and dark film. In addition to this, I had also been through the footage from day 1 and realised that we had missed a couple shots, so we also tried our best to film these without the extras (San (Nathan) answering the phone at the party).

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Due to day 2 of shooting being on a Saturday and also the last day we were all available to film, we were stuck to using my two LED softbox photography lighting kits again as the equipment store is closed on weekends; we were once again, unable to book out the necessary lighting equipment as San had failed to make the appropriate booking. However, due to the scenes being in fairly well lit areas anyways, I think the LED softbox photography lights should hopefully be enough to light out the scenes. However, once again, San didn't help whatsoever to light out the set and purely focused on acting instead.

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Day two consisted of us filming the: bedroom scenes, bathroom scene, San's (Nathan) initial entrance to the party where he meets Jake and the hallway scene of San (Nathan) re-entering/exiting the party with the prop knife. Once again, I thoroughly enjoyed filming these scenes and got to experiment with some over the shoulder shots and also to film a mirror for the first time without getting the camera/microphone in shot which was an exciting challenge which I enjoyed attempting. I found the bathroom scene, particularly the close up shot of San's (Nathan) face the most challenging to focus as San is much taller than me and there wasn't much room between himself and me with the camera as the bathroom door also had to be shut for continuity.

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Today's session included watching all the rushes as a group and deciding if we felt that reshoots were necessary or not. After watching the footage, we quickly came to the conclusion that all of the party footage is very dark and poorly lit due to our lack of equipment. However, due to the unavailability of our extras/actors, we're not able to reshoot these scenes. Although I did try naming each file at home prior to class, my laptop was unfortunately not strong enough and kept crashing. Therefor, me and Mia went through the footage and audio files and named each best shot to match - making it easier for everyone in the edit.

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During today's class, I attempted to transfer the camera footage to the whole group. However, this took much longer than expected due to technical difficulties of the computers in the editing suite. The computers kept crashing whilst I attempted to give everyone the footage and so we had to get some help from Lara who thankfully helped me to send the footage to everyone by the end of the session. Unfortunately, due to personal reasons, Mia was unable to attend today's session and so the group and I are still waiting to receive the audio files. Once I've received the necessary audio files from Mia, I'll be able to start my edit which I'm really excited about.

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During today's class, I managed to get all of the audio files from Mia and was finally able to start editing. So far, I've imported all of the footage and audio into premiere pro and have fully edited all of the establishing shots and the first scene. I'm really happy with how it's looking so far and will continue to edit over the weekend in preparation for our next class on Monday.

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Scene 1 - Establishing shot of the party/moving camera around all the separate groups of people in attendance

Scene 2 - Medium close up of charlie and Isabel's face as well as a two shot of both of them in frame

Scene 3 - Single long shot of Nathan sat in his room

Scene 4 - Two shot of Nathan entering the party and bumping into the drunken party guest

Scene 5 - Over the shoulder shot of both Nathan and Flynn talking in the hallway / of Nathan entering the party

Scene 6 - Medium close up of Nathan and Charlie talking and Charlie and Isabel talking / close up of Charlie

Scene 7 - Extreme close up of shot glasses / long shot of everyone having a shot

Scene 8 - Longshot of everyone counting down to midnight / Medium close up of Nathan and Charlie kissing

Scene 9 - Extreme close up of Nathan's phone ringing / Medium close up of him going to pick it up

Scene 10 - Medium close up / long shot shot of Nathan answering the phone and entering the bathroom

Scene 11 - Medium close up / close up of Nathan in the Bathroom / long shot of him re-entering/leaving the party

Scene 12 - Close up of Charlie on the floor/Isabel yelling / Medium close up (over the shoulder) of Isabel finding Charlie dead on the floor

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To finish the edit, I added music and colour corrected some scenes, specifically focusing on the exposure to try and brighten up most of the shots due to our lighting issues that we faced whilst filming. To improve, I think we needed to shoot a couple more party scenes as it jumps from the shots to the countdown to midnight and so I had to incorporate a my own countdown to avoid a messy jump cut. Additionally, I think we could have timed it out much better as my original final edit was 6 minutes and so I had to significantly cut it down which I feel makes the edit look messier than I wanted it to. All in all though, I'm happy with the final product as a first attempt at an original short film. I'm proud of the whole cast and think we managed to pull it all of considering the lighting issues and the struggle that we initially had to gather enough extras for the party.