Filming day

8.45 - We all arrived at the studio ready for a long day of filming. Our first location was in Dave Fonseca's Office so we had to take the Camera, Sound Muff, Tripod, a Light and the props we needed for the English Prime Minister set. This took some time, adjusting the room so we could only see the blue curtains as the back round but still managed to see the mise-en-scene we had place on the table.

9.20 - We began shooting. I volunteered to be camera woman for the shots on this location. I surprised myself by how much i remembered about the camera and how to use it from when we did our Preliminary shoot last term. Our Prime Minister Ted co-operated very well and did just as we asked. We had to do a few run throughs of his sequence of setting up to make sure we had enough usable footage and then we saw some good extra shots, one of my favourite shots of the whole day being a very powerful close up of a desk British flag with Ted's hands out of focus moving around behind. We learnt quickly that we needed to allocate jobs so we weren't talking over each other or trying to both do one thing, Sarah was in charge of the Sound muff, Walter directed Ted in what to do, i was on Camera and Will assisted me. The first set worked well so we were done just before 10.

10.15 - We moved to our next location, the Server room where our hacker was located. We chose that small room because it was little and dark, with a computer and lots of machines that flashed and wires. The desk and computer were against the window, so for the shot of Walter's (our hackers) face from behind the Computer monitor we had to open the window and have the camera set up outside. Unluckily it just started raining so we covered the camera with an umbrella which actually helped hold up the black material that we used to block out the day light.

We then put up the portable light in the door way so you couldn't see it but there was enough light to see Walter and the technology, we even put a blue sheet over the light to make it look like a light in the room and not orange from outside.

This location was one of our hardest because of the size of the room. Another problem we came across was the computer screen. We had originally decided to have the green screen up on the hackers computer but on the day it look like this was going to be a struggle so we quickly thought up an idea to have a sound wave sequence up on his screen to show him listening in. So while we were doing more shots where you couldn't see the screen we had someone creating the sequence but then getting it onto the screen was the problem. The sequence was created on an apple and the computer being used in shot was a windows so we found a cable to connect a laptop to the computer which took over the screen so what was on the laptop came up on the computer, but just to cause more problems the cable didn't fit in an apple laptop which is what we had so luckily we managed to borrow a windows laptop and send the sequence to the laptop and after a bit of fiddling we managed to get it up on screen and the outcome looked great. If only we had worked this out in our planning time it would have saved half an hour of running around sorting it out. Now we had finished the shots of our hacker we took quite a few different little shots of wires following them down, a fan that was in the room and of flashing lights on some machines.

1.00 - Finally we had finished in the server room so we stopped for a quick lunch break.

1.20 - We were back moving the filming equipment back up to one of the classrooms not in use because it was lunch break, but this was the only time our German leader Andy was free. We were a lot more comfortable with filming by now so it didn't take us as long to film at this location so we were done by 2 o'clock. I wasn't very happy with how the German background looked as we just used a white board but it was what we had and only having a small budget we could only use the classrooms which were free so i think we managed well with what we had.

3.15 - This was may favourite part of the day when we were filming in the boys changing room corridor. but before we began shooting we had some time to prepare with one of the actors so we sat and had a script run-through with her so that she knew how we wanted her to say the lines, and could make a few small edits to help her.

 This was a key part in our title sequence as it was when the Administrator was briefing the President. I also got to film these shots, so was in charge of the camera while someone pushed me back and forth on the tracking machine. There were a few problems with this location and tracking, like keeping the tracks straight on the bumpy floor so the camera was kept steady. And getting the actors to walk at the right pace so I got their heads in the shot was hard co-ordinating.





4.30 - We gave the actors a short break and then moved into the studio set. It had been a long day and we were coming to the end, and so we probably didn't get enough different shots out of this location which i regret but the shots we did get look very powerful so i think it will still work.


5.30 - We did our last location in a French classroom as our shot for Audrey the French leader. This shot didn't need a lot of work as it was only the one angle.

The mise-en-scene for each shot was incredibly important that we didn't have any hints that we were shooting at a school, so we had fairly simple set ups and plain backgrounds and using our desk flag props to inform the audience of the country. Me and team mate Will went around the school many times looking in every room for locations, although the backgrounds are small they needed to look official enough for the title sequence to be realistic. We chose to use the studio for our conference call location which me and Will painted the white walls the day before and moved a desk from a classroom to use as an office desk, having a laptop, flag, lamp and files placed very precisely on the table. Our other important location was the server room, it worked perfectly for our hacker just as a small dark room with lots of technical machines with flashing lights and wires. on this location we showed of a lot more variety with our angles and shots, we did front shots of the hacker, over the shoulder, side on and close ups over the face and hands. then with the machines we moved around following the wires and tacking around the room. with all our other shots we kept them more simple as not to over complicate the 2 minutes but we did include close ups, mid-shots and over the shoulders. for when our President spoke to the video call we had to make sure he was looking up to where the screen will be, we didn't give the camera much of a downwards angle but it slightly made him look more powerful.

This is (from right to left) me, Walter and Will painting the walls for the conference room the day before.

I was very happy with our props, i was in charge of them and put a lot of effort into buy a top secret stamp and manila file and Will bought the desk flags. the costumes were easy as we just got the actors to were suits and changed the ties making them subtly smart and simple. As our actors were teachers they all owned suits and were all willing to wear them after emailing each one of them when and where they needed to be.

The casting proved to be difficult because we had to chose from our teachers, but on they day every one of them fit the part and I am very grateful as to how they all gave up their time, wore what we asked and co-operated very well with each shoot. We were very luck to have Audrey as she is an actress so could play the part well and put on an American accent, and although Roy's accent wasn't the best we still have great footage. Walter we casted last as our hacker, and at first i wasn't sure about using one of our group members in the title sequence but he really looked the part and the other 3 of us managed well without his help.

For the lighting of each set we had to try block out the orange outside light and used our white light giving the effect of a room which people can't just see into. For the server room we covered the light with a blue sheet so it was dimly light by a light. And for the corridor scene we decided to cover the nature light coming in and have it dark to show that its a secret underground location where normal people can' get to.

I have already discussed our script a few times, i can't say it sounds completely realistic but for four 17 year olds who obviously don't know what sort of things the president will say in a crisis i think we did well with it. Other sounds we got were of the leaders going through paper, a door opening, footsteps and a chair moving. Although these are such simple sounds its important to include them so it sounds life like, without them there would be something missing.

For the run-up and during the filming i feel i contributed a lot. I was in charge of props and bought our main ones, I went out and chose our locations with Will, I emailed the actors many times regarding details of the day, and i was involved in the base of the original idea. On the day i gave it my all by being in charge of the camera a few times but also allowing the others to do their share. I, with Will painted the whole set for the conference room the day before and moved the large desk through. I sorted out the light for the server room, something i didn't really realise needed doing till I saw it on the day. I was very tired at the end of the day but i felt good about it. I enjoyed the full on day and didn't mind a bit of stress as i work better under pressure, there was always something that needed to be done and I had to think ahead and use my intuition to make decisions.

For the preparation i wasn't very happy with the effort being put in by two of the team members, but i think Will and I worked well together and did the best we could in doing all the organising ourselves. We both bought props, scouted locations and finalised, emailed and spoke to get our actors, edited the script many times, created a timeline and set up all the afternoon before. On the day the other team mates worked better but as a team of four occasionally i struggled to keep track of where everyone was. I am happy with the shots we took and feel we can make a strong title sequence if everyone works hard for the next two weeks.

Observing a Shoot

Its now days till we get to film and as other groups have been filming i thought it would be helpful for me to watch how some of my friends filming went. I learnt a lot from observing how they went about all their different shots, and I was glad to see they had room to adjust or slightly change what they were doing in case something didn't look right or they found a better shot.

I think one of the most important thing i learnt was to make sure the whole group was organised, knew where each other were at all times and that everyone always had a job to do.

Finalising

Now we have our props delivered, cast secured, locations booked, set design finalised and are making final touches on our script, we can just wait till our filming date keeping everything organised.

On the run up to filming, we have looked at, changed and changed again our script but we have finalised it now and tried it out with the storyboard videoed and it fits just how we want.

President's Administrator : your meeting with the sectary of defence has been pushed to 10am, NATO has been alerted and we have them online as we speak. Also the media have been given an excuse but questions are being asked. We have to react quickly.

President : At 1400 an attack took place on the United States Military Mainframe, the attack was unknown and planned. We will need your full co-operation to address this threat.

We struggled to know how a President would be addressed and how he would address other leaders but i think this script sounds the part and will work well.

These are all emails confirming and recommending times from our actresses/ors.