Voice over.

We are going to include a voice over in our film. It will be a letter being read out by the main character-a reply to one we see early on in the film. This reply is more than a letter, it is a suicide note. The character is saying his last thoughts to his ex-girlfriend. This is a draft of the letter:

"To ..........
So you're leaving me. Without an explanation. Without giving me a chance to fight for you. Did you expect me just to accept it? Move on with my life, never to see you again? You don't know me at all.

You're the only one I have. I wish I could talk to (martha). (S)he'd know what to do, and tell me how to cope. But I can't. When (martha) left me, left this world, you were the only one who helped was there. Who wiped each tear and whispered to me that everything was going to be ok. And I believed your lies.

You helped me through that. But who's going to help me through this?! Memories are what you have when you've lost everything. You've not even left me those...so what do I have left? I don't know how to not love you. And I don't know how to let you go.

It will always sadden me that I will not get to share my life with you. Without you, there's no meaning to life.

I hope you mourn for me the way I have for you.

Till death do us part..."

Editing and developments

Whilst editing the film clips we have today, we worked out what we have to film next lesson to complete our filming. These things include two more flashbacks:

Flashback 1: The main character opens an envelope that contains a letter from his ex-girlfriend; she is breaking up with him. When he opens the letter, a silver bracelet falls out-a present that she has returned to him. This bracelet will link up with the main story as the main character drops it in a puddle just before he decides to jump. This gives the idea that his girlfriend ending their relationship was a contributing factor to him jumping.

Flashback 2: The main character burns the letter from his ex-girlfriend in a fireplace. We will film the letter burning, and also a shot of the light of the fire on his face and reflected in his eyes. This flashback shows that he is not completely 'with it' as burning the letter is not a rational response; also, the fire being reflected in his eyes symbolises the 'burning' he is feeling inside and also emphasises him loosing his mind.

We also need to film some close ups of the characters face to add a variety of shots to our shotlist. This also gives a greater insight into the characters emotions: "the eyes are the window to the soul".
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Whilst editing today we have got most of the film onto the timeline and matched up so that the editing is continuous and flows neatly into each shot. We have also added some effects to make increase the atmosphere created by the film; fade in and out in some shots, and also sped up some of the shots and slowed down others, to create a jittery effect which reflects how the character is feeling.
We have also started to look at music that is going to go with our film. Nothing has been definately decided yet, however some of the tracks we may use are:
Beautiful tension long.
Not so friendly short.
We are experimenting with different sounds on garageband but have all agreed that a minor, mysterious track would go best with our film as it increases the sense of tension and suspense.

Summary so far.

summary for filming...
In the last few lessons we have been out on location filming on the top of Manchester Arndale car park. Both times we went filming the weather was relatively similar, so we were quite lucky and hopefully the scenes won't differ too much. We filmed a variety of shots including point of view shots and close ups, we also did a few panning and tilting shots. We used a puddle in the ground to create a reflective effect when tilting the camera from the main characters feet to head which we though looks very effective. We also filmed two establishing shots from a birds eye view to show the audince the locations in which we were shooting, we filmed a typical landmark of Mancherter (the wheel) to emphazise this.

summary for editing...
Filming went well and we have managed to get most of the scenes we need. We have captured the clips that were on the 'canon' digital video camera and put the on final cut pro. We then edited the clips toghether and worked out we should only need one more period of filming to get all the scenes we need to complete the filming. Once we captured all the clips we renamed them according to what they were off, we then put them in order of how they would be in the final piece using final cut pro using the imac computers. We used the 'mark in' and 'mark out' tool on the keyboard to cut the extra bits of the clips we did'nt need or would'nt match.

We have all contributed to the direction of these scenes, and find that we are still working very well as a group. We have been taking it in turns as the role of the camera person, director, and runner, and we are all now very confident with using the camera and tripod.

Behind the scenes extras

Here are a few behind the scenes shots we took when we went filming on the 2nd March 2010.

These are the footprints that are made by the character when he walks through a puddle on the rooftop. The fact he walks through the puddle and not around it demonstrates the idea that he doesn't care if his feet get wet or not, and also that he is determined to get the the place he wants to be (the edge of the car park) as quickly as possible-he does not want to take the long way around.

This is the camera and tripod that we used to film out project, we used a canon digital minidv camcorder, and a standard black tripod.



This is a 'behind the scenes' photograph to show the location in which we filmed part of our project. This was the roof of the Arnedale car park and we deliberalty choose to have the Manchester wheel in the background in the establishing shot to show the audiene the location of the opening of the film.

This is a reflection snapshot of a scene in the project, the character is looking down into the puddle and reminising on his life so far. He is in a deep depression and is on his way to commit suicide.



This is the footprints of the main character, he walked through a puddle therefore his feet are wet, and them he walks onto a dry ground leaving footprints in this path, these footprints symbolise the ending of his life as they are the only things left of him when he finally jumps.

This is another 'behind the scenes' photograph , showing the production team hard at work, in theis photo it is showing the scene where the main character is looking down on the busy people in the roads below going about their daily buisness. Here a mid-long shot was filmed.

again this is another 'behind the scenes' shot, just like before it is the scene in which the main character is looking down on the moving traffic and busy people. However this is a long-shot of the character.

this behind the scenes photograph is of the cameraperson and runner changing the size of the tripod so it is higher so it can create a better view of the establishing shot of the location of the film.

Here is a behind the scenes shot with the tripod in the foreground and the main character and cameraperson, here the cameraperson is showing the main character how to hold the camera (close to your chest) to create less shakyness, as he is about to film a point of view shot down on the main road.

here again the cameraperson is showing the character how to hold the camera the create less shake-ness.

this is a snapshot from a scene in the opening of the film. The footprints were created by the main character walking through a puddle and then walking out into the dry ground. This is very effective as his footprints stop at the end of the fence, his footprints them disapear, there is only one explanation for the missin gfootprints and that is that he had jumped off.

Location shots

Here are a few Location Shots we took when we went filming on 2nd March 2010.

This is a shot of the view from the top of the car park. We have taken a photo of this because it demonstrates the height of the rooftop, and emphasises the location-a busy industrial area. The fact that the Urbis building is in the distance shows it is in central Manchester.

This is a shot of the door at the entrance of the stairs. The car park in the background with the skyline shows the height of the building, and also the solidarity of the location, as there are no cars. This is ideal for our location as it reflects the character-he is all alone mentally, and physically, on the rooftop.

This shot shows the height of the building, and also the fact it is in a busy area. The fact there are tram lines, cars and pedestrians show it is a commonly used public area, and this is ideal for our location as an area like this would create a lot of panic and drama when the character jumped from the railings. This shows the character is not thinking straight, and wants to be noticed as he is willing to cause disruption and chaos with his death.

This is another angled shot that emphasises the surrounding area and location of the car park we are using for our film.

The tram, traffic and pedestrians in this shot emphasises the busy area again, as it is constantly in use by all different types of transport.

This shot of the car park in the foreground and big wheel in the background shows the location of the car park, and the big wheel will be good to use in an establishing shot. If it is sped up for a few moments in a jumpy fashion it will reflect the way the character is thinking and feeling-jumpy and irregular.

Day 1 (grave scene)

Today we started filming for our main task; here are some of the location and behind the scenes shots we took.

We filmed in a small graveyard in Chorlton. The weather was not ideal as it was raining, however we managed to keep the camera dry with an umbrella.

We had to deal with rain on our day of filming. Which was not really a problem as we were filming a 'flashback' scene and the weather does not have to be the same from the rest of the scenes as it is supposted to have happened at a different date from the rest of the scenes. To stop the camera getting destroyed in the rain we put up a umberella over the camera and tripod.

Here is the camera crew. from left to right; Beth (runner), Rachel (director), and Roisin (cameraperson). As you can see it was raining and the camer ais being protected with the use of the umberella.

again here is another photograph of the camera crew, at this point we were just about to start filming our very first shot ever.

Here is a costume shot of the main character (Stefan). We took this photograph so we can make sure the continuity of the scenes will be perfect, because we do not want him to be wearing different clothes in other scenes and this will make the continuity editing bad and create a sense of unrealism to the shots.




Here is a behind the scenes shot from the opposite end of the camera. In this shot the actor and camera crew were captured. This photograph shows the location of the scenes, which was a local graveyard in Chorlton.






Here is another behind the scenes shotbut this time it is from a diffenent angle. The shot that was being captured here was a over the shoulder shot of the main characters right shoulder, focusing on the writin gon the graveyard which is supposed to be one of the characters close relatives.







Here is another behind the scenes photographs, here the camera crew are about the start to film and are getting everything ready. The actor (main character) is getting ready in place beside the gravestone and the camera person is about to press record on the camera.




This is the gravestone that appeared in all our shots. It Belonged to a woman called "Grace Helen". We were unsure about weathe rto use this gave stone or not as it is very old but them we desided we would use it as the graestone belonged to a relative of the main characters and theis relative did not have to be alive the same time he was.





This is the archway that appears in the openinng scene of the film. It leads into the graveyard and the main character walks through it.






This is a photograph of the Bell tower ontop of archway. This bell tower rings every hour and looks very effective so we desided to use this in one of our shots .



Filming went well today and we got all the shots we needed plus extra shots just in case we need to extened parts of the scenes or we had the incorrect amount of shots to work with, at this point in filming we are very confindent that we have everything we need so far.

Treatment

Here is a treatment for the main task...

For our opening scene we have decided to come up with the idea of a flashback sequence and throughout the scene a letter is read out, written by the main character. The character, who is living in a deep depression, is on the verge of committing suicide. This opening sequence follows the journey of a character through an urban location to the point where he takes his own life by jumping off the top of a high building. An ideal location for our filming includes the CSI building and possibly the arndale car park. The 2-3 flashbacks would include things that lead him to becoming depressed, for example relationship troubles, death of a family member etc. We shall add just enough detail, as it is an opening scene, for the audience to gain an understanding but still have unanswered questions-who is the character? Who are the characters involved in the flashbacks? How does it all work out?. The scene ends with the character jumping at the same time the suicide note is finished (a voice over by the main character). Things in this note would lead to a series of events which would carry on the film.