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The first session we got into our groups and started to brainstorm ideas. As a group we all decided we liked the idea of a Thriller or a Drama.

We created a mind map of possible ideas.

As in the first session we were introduced to some short films, for example we watched Doodlebug, by Christopher Nolan, and the made us realise our narrative couldn't be too complex and unachievable.

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In session, we all created some character descriptions (of random characters/characters that could possibly link into our initial story ideas).

My feedback was to add more detail about that character, maybe what she does daily or a bit more on their backstory.

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As a group we began to create a narrative, scene by scene, while also thinking about possible shots.

We eventually came up with a timeline draft.

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As we had a timeline we started the scriptwriting process as soon as possible.

As roles in our group was decided, I the director, took on the role of writing the majority of the script. I did meet up with the producer in which they helped me with some ideas they had, also other members of the group pitched in.

I felt using the Fade In app made the scriptwriting process much easier, it cooperated.

I felt writing a script helped the story come to life. While scriptwriting I was thinking about the characters and almost put myself in their shoes to help with the dialogue.

I had the idea of an episodic structure including flash backs, which made sense after writing the script.

As director I was able to make my vision come to life.

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in groups we discussed roles we wanted to do. I put myself forward for either camera/lighting or director.

I feel I would be a good director as I am a very creative person, I have a big imagination and I am a very visual person, meaning I can picture things well in my head. I also feel I am quite a approachable person and I work very well collaboratively.

As director I think communicating my vision to the rest of my team is key.

I think I approached this very well, for example I met with Shreya, the camera/lighting operator, to create a shot plan/story board. Before this meeting I sat and sketched out my vision on paper including some shot ideas, how I visioned the characters, and used shading to show specific lighting I wanted. I then brought this to our meeting and through communicating my ideas to Shreya, we were able to create a shot storyboard that I think communicates my vision very well.

I also created mood boards on Pinterest, which I sent to my team to help them understand what my vision was. I had a board for each scene and a board for each character.

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The week before shooting I worked closely with the producer. We had several meetings to discuss filming schedules, location and casting.

I again communicated my vision to the producer including what set I wanted for each scene, in which they helped me find a location that fit my vision.

For casting I had some course friends that I could picture playing our films characters well, however due to them not being available on our shooting days, the producer and I created a casting call.

We also as a team did a recce for the flat scene- as there was a lot of furniture in my flat we had to see if the equipment would fit, which luckily did.

To prepare for our shoot next week we added tape on the floor so we knew where to position actors and equipment.

Me and the producer sent the scripts to our actors, and I also produced a character description for the actors to understand who they were playing.

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Our first day of filming took place in my flat, this was the flash back scenes.

The process went quite smoothly, we had our shot plans to help us keep on track, and as we had already done a recce, we knew where to set up our equipment and actors.

As director I worked very close with the Shreya (camera/lighting)- once she got the framing correct she asked for my approval. As we had already had a meeting about certain shots and the overall visuals of the film, most of the time we agreed on shots together. However there were some times certain shots did not look how I wanted, so we worked together to adjust lighting and camera angles so my vision was able to come to life.

This scene is a very physical scene for our actors, there was a lot of specific movements that had to be done correctly to portray the themes in our film (such as abuse). I helped the actors by talking through the movements/doing a rehearsal while the equipment was getting set up. I also worked on their characters with them, giving them objectives (I want to...) to think about so their characters could really show through their physicality.

Our producer was absent on this day of shoot so I also had to take on the role of that. This included making sure we were going by schedule, checking up on our crew + actors to see if they were feeling okay and also taking on the clapperboard role.

I also worked with Tom (sound operator) as we recorder some extra sounds for our edit- we recorded our actors shouting, a chair being kicked over, and overall ambience of the flat. I wanted this scene to show an accurate/realistic representation of abusive relationships, therefore including ambience sounds in our edit adds to that realism.

A problem we faced when filming the park scene outside was how bright the sun was. We were able to get a few good shots, however the scene was just overly exposed. We decided to leave this scene and bring the footage to our next lesson to be looked at.

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Today we filmed the cafe scene in True Student accommodation.

We unfortunately were not allowed to do a recce beforehand so today we were not as prepared. However we sticked to our storyboard and shot plan which allowed us to finish shooting for this scene earlier than we thought.

This scene is very dialogue heavy- it reveals a lot of information about the story and the characters. There was also some narration that we had to record, so sound was something we had to focus on.

The first problem we had was that there was music being played through the speakers in the rom we were filming. However we had Gabby, our producer, to talk to reception and as we had permission to film here they were able to switch the music off.

I had to work close with the actors as there was subtext I wanted them to communicate. This involved me and the two actors having a conversation about their character on a deeper level- we talked about their characters backstories, how the characters feel about each other and how they would react to one other. I think conversations like these throughout filming helped the actors, as I think they portrayed their characters well and communicated the subtext that I envisioned.

The camera and lighting worked well throughout shooting. The only issue was that we were filming next to a big window, as I wanted a lot of exposure and natural light in this scene to contrast the dark flashbacks. However it was very cloudy and the sun exposure was at times a bit too much. I think as a team we solved this problem as Shreya adjusted the exposure settings on the camera.

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After time off our lessons to film, we went back and brought our footage to look over.

There were a few issues:

The flat scene- Some of the key shots for this scene were out of focus. The overall scene was darker than we thought- once we had transferred the footage onto a bigger screen, I realised it did not communicate my vision at all.

Reshoot: We ensured the close up shots were in focus and we increased the intensity of the LED lights, while also adjusting the exposure on the camera.

^The footage looked much better quality after this.

Park scene- The issue with this scene was that in the background of the shots was a white building and the sky- the sun was reflecting off the white building, making the scene too bright and our characters look like silhouettes.

Reshoot: We picked a different location to film in, where the background was covered with trees so most of the sunlight was covered. We also booked out a reflector to help direct the sunlight on our actors- however since we chose a less exposed area, he reflector was not needed.

^The reshoot footage fit with my vision more as. wanted some greenery in the scene, which we did not have in the original shot.

Bathroom shot (flat scene): We did a recce for this shot, whited looked very good. However the shots from filming were so dark and the lighting was a yellowy tone.

^I think the problem was that maintenance had changed the light in my bathroom between the recce and filming day.

Reshoot: As the lighting in my bathroom was not correct we decided to film it in Gabby's bathroom, which had a cooler tone light. We also had Shreya adjust the white balance on the camera to make it look even better.

For our reshoot, we had to recast our Oscar as our original actor was not available on our reshoot days. This did not disrupt the continuity of the film as we were reshooting all scenes with Oscars character in them.

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Some of the footage did not match my vision, which I think was due to the colours and exposure. As I want the flashback scenes to contrast, I imagined them to have different aesthetic to them.

For example, I wanted to communicate a comforting and freeing atmosphere in the park scene, and out footage was heavily white and bright. To fix this I decreased the exposure and increased the temperature to bring warmth into the shot.

Similarly with the flat scene I wanted a darker and colder atmosphere, so I decreased the exposure and decreased the temperature.

^After colour grading, the footage looked similar to my vision and mood boards.

Some footage needed colour grading for continuity reasons. For example the wide shot in the cafe scene with the characters infant of a large window looked like silhouettes.

As well as the bathroom bruise shot, IT was very low in exposure, so that needed brightened so you could see the bruises on Jessicas neck, which is the focus of this shot.

With my edit the main thing i was focusing on was the changing of shots in the cafe scene. For example it would go from a close up, then to an over-the-shoulder shot, then to a wide shot. Maintaining the same audio was something i had to consider, so i had to change the volumes levels for a lot of the audio.

I included a lot of sound effects from BBC sounds for the opening and end scene to help communicate my vision. I wanted those scenes to be engaging and quite chaotic. i achieved this by overlapping multiple different tracks, some sound effects i gathered (such as glass breaking and banging) as well as audio we recorded when filming (Oscar screaming and Jessica breathing).