Certificate Rating - Alex Lloyd, Jack Storer and Caroline Robertson

We have had a discussion on what certificate rating we would have for our short film, we have always planned to target our film towards a late teen audience, film literates who enjoy social realism films. We planned to certify our short as a 15 but after much discussion we have realised that in BBFC's opinion it would be seen differently. "Moderate language is allowed. The use of strong language (for example 'fuck') must be infrequent." - BBFC. This was on their definition of a '12' rating, we wanted to know what ratings would stand for this language due to the word 'fuck' being heard once throughout the short, now that we know a '12' can include this language we have rethought our certification.

Looking at our audience feedback, much of the useful information and reviews we have received are from those younger than '15'. This gives us more evidence in why we should have our film as a '12'.

Initial ideas for review - Abi Black

I have drawn out some initial ideas for the design layout of the review after researching into the magazine. My review layouts are based on if we only have one page and so it would not be a double paged spread. I have chosen to really focus on the design side of things seeing as when reviewing the magazine it focuses on the pictures as they are large images and the layout used. This takes up the majority of the magazine. In my designs I have kept the structure simple, sticking to the one picture and reasonably small copy space however in some I have changed where the title is placed having it coming down the side just to add some variety to it. When thinking about the image we are actually going to use for this I do not want to use the same picture that we would put of the poster, and instead maybe an interesting still from the film. The image which I think would look quite effective is the one of Milo bouncing on the trampoline, as this pictures his isolation and I think is a powerful shot in the film. Another idea for an image we could use is the one which I think manages to sum the whole film up of Milo in the foreground of the image, with his parents out of focus arguing in the background. This again would be a dominant and iconic image from the film and would clearly set the genre for the film.
Another noticeable thing about the reviews in the magazine is that at the end of each one there is rating system out of 5, from the categories of anticipation, enjoyment and in retrospect, so we would have to include this in our review to make it look the most like it would actually appear in the magazine.

(Need to scan them in)

Research of Little White Lies Magazine - Abi Black

After looking at the general layout of Little White Lies magazine it is evident that the magazine is very design based. Each issue is dedicated to one particular film and then small icons from this film often appear on every other page. The writing for the reviews often seems very informal, and straight to the point. There is rarely any use of technical film language, as a result of this the magazine has widened its target audience as very little knowledge of the subject is needed.
The layout for the reviews often comes with the picture on the top taking up almost half of the page and the underneath part is of the review. Here are a few examples taken from the online magazine.

Credits - little white lies - Jack Storer

As further research into the house style of Little white lies, Alex and I have researched into the credits of the magazine. Each issue the credits adapt the story and each name has an image that relates with them personally and the film. for example the Darjeeling limited each of the staff has selected station sign from the Darjeeling track and it has been displayed above their names. in 'The Road' issue each has a photo of what their own trolley would look like if they where in that situation, as anyone who has seen the road will know that Viggo Mortensen's character pushes all his belongings in a trolley as in the story he is homeless. For another example in the 'Where the Wild Things are' issue each of the staff has made a small blue-tak model of a monster and it has then been scanned in. These credits are just abit of fun and a reoccurring feature that the little white lies staff add in each week, and our a light hearted look at the sometimes deep emotional meaning of the props. so following this idea we chose the idea of Favourite drink, as alcoholism plays a large part in our film.

while recreating this page from the magazine as if Milo was the focus film we have realised the light heartedness of their magazine and the approach they take is alot more relaxed than we had first anticipated.

Initial Review Ideas - Alex Lloyd

As you can see I have designed the template of the review in a similar way to the Little White Lies review with the image of the film taking up almost 50% of the page. We have planned for Milo's review to be a full page review and have looked at many of Little White Lies reviews in order to analyse what typical conventions are used in each.

The house style of Little White Lies review layout always includes a Box with 'Directed By' and 'Starring' written in and a smaller box with 'Released' in. The colours of these boxes always contrast and are colours that may represent the featured film of the magazine, in the case below they are pink and green for 'This Is England'.

• The reviews always give a rating out of 5 for 'Anticipation', 'Enjoyment' and 'Retrospect', these ratings are found at the end of the articles.
• In the bottom right corner of the page there is always a page number next to a specific logo for the feature film, again it may represent the film or be an object that is seen and noticed of being in the film. For the 'This Is England' issue, the logo is a tear drop, this may due to the sadness shown throughout the film.
• There is always a 4 column text layout.
• Title in Capitals - box infill in contrasting colour.
• First line in first column in Bold.
• The text is always in a font similar to Ariel.
• In most of the reviews there are typographical effects seen throughout the magazine, these may be hand drawn images/graphics and are always related to the feature film. For example, in the 'Where The Wild Things Are' issue, there are hand drawn monsters and sketches seen on most pages within the magazine.

For my initial idea, I made sure I followed all of these conventions adding some logos and colours that represent our film. I have made the boxes green and light blue to connote the green countryside and the blue sky seen in our short. They also contrast quite well. The logo I would include at the bottom by the page number is a bottle of alcohol, this is an icon of our film with the key theme of alcoholism. We have discussed what typograhical effects would be included if our film was the featured film of the magazine and have come up with many ideas. We can see them being hand drawn sketches of tree's, tears and alcohol bottles. These conventions would be kept throughout the magazine.

Magazine Review Rough Ideas - Caroline Robertson

Two Draft layouts for the review, one in portrait format one in landscape. These are in the house style of Independent film magazine, Little White Lies, which is the most likely of the film magazines we havel looked at to feature our film as it is both a short piece and a social realism - both of which are scarce as feature pieces in film review magazines. We will go on to decide which review layout works best in the group to produce a final piece.

Review - Jack Storer

here is an initial layout plan for our review. it is following all the key conventions of little white lies. we are imagining our film is getting a full page for the review.

conventions.
box's for Title Director Staring and release.
background sketch idea.
logo and page number
star rating (anticipation, Enjoyment, retreospect)

-Jack Storer

FINAL FILM - group

Poster Research - Alex Lloyd, Jack Storer, Caroline Robertson and Abi Black

In class our group made a textual analysis on the film posters for 'Fish Tank'. Fish Tank is a 2009 film directed by Andrea Arnold, well recognised for 'Red Road'. Fish Tank won the Jury Prize at the 62nd Cannes Film Festival and also won the 2010 BAFTA for Best British Film.

The film was released with two posters, one portrait and one landscape.

As you can see this is the portrait poster for 'Fish Tank', we believe this would have been used to attract a more Unisex audience, film literates, middle class and educated.

From this poster we analysed that it would a powerful narrative. The representation of this character portrays her as being quite rebellious due to her costume wearing a hoody. Her body language connotes that she has independence and is strong and defiant.

This film is a typical British film being a gritty, social realism film. But from this poster it can connote a Street Dancing, Teen Movie genre due to the colour and composition.

In comparison to the second poster, we believe this would attract more of an urban, city audience, not necessarily middle class. It is the offical US poster and most US audiences are used to happy, feel good films. If the second poster was used to advertise the film within countries such as the US, it may not have attracted such a huge audience.

This is the second poster we analysed, this time in landscape.

Due to the facial expressions, composition and setting, we analysed that the narrative would have more of a depressing storyline full of isolation, hence why it would not suit a US audience. The decor and costume connotes that the characters may well be all working class.

Our character is this time represented as a lone, isolated female. The clothes and jewellery she wears can seem 'chav' like, again from a working class status.

We believe this poster can be easily identified as being a poster for a social realism film due to the gritty surroundings our character is in. Icons such as the heart on the wall suggest love is a theme within this film. As for its target audience, the second poster may well attract more of a female based audience due to the colouring and character representation.

Yet an older audience may well be attracted to the second poster due to newspaper ratings, quotes and awards mentioned.

Finished Film - Roles Throughout - Alex Lloyd

We have now completed our film using Final Cut Pro and Garageband, one query we have is to whether we should desaturate the colour throughout the piece but whether or not it will make that much difference, we are not sure yet.

From the beginning we have all put in a lot of effort into the production of 'Milo'. The roles throughout have been as follows:

Narrative Creators: Alex Lloyd, Jack Storer, Caroline Robertson and Abi Black
Storyboard Artists: Alex Lloyd and Abi Black
Location Scouts: Alex Lloyd, Jack Storer, Caroline Robertson and Abi Black
Director: Alex Lloyd
Camerawork: Alex Lloyd and Jack Storer
Prop Managers: Alex Lloyd, Caroline Robertson and Abi Black
Lighting Manager: Caroline Robertson
Editors: Alex Lloyd, Jack Storer and Caroline Robertson
Sound: Alex Lloyd and Caroline Robertson
Script Writers: Caroline Robertson and Abi Black
Photographers: Alex Lloyd, Caroline Robertson and Abi Black
Voice Recordist: Alex Lloyd
Titles: Alex Lloyd

Actors: Milo Price, Jack Price
Extras: Megan Boyd, Dom Harper

Little White Lies Research - Caroline Robertson

Little White Lies is an independent British magazine which focus's on films and reviews. Every issue focus's on one main film, past examples being Marie Antoinette and This Is England. The magazine divides itself into different chapters, the first always being "Chapter 1 , In which we discuss *film title*" and then goes on to review the main film of the issue. The language used is quite informal, for example, the introduction to the review of Marie Antoinette reads "Marie Antoinette is Sophia Coppola's anthem of teenage kicks." "gossip, gambling, shopping and shagging of Versailles."


This is my take on the style of Little White Lies introduction for the review using a photograph we took whilst shooting the main scene of the film. I incorporated the "Chapter one in which we discuss" into the bottom left as the others have been done, and also added the boxes including the release date, directed by, and starring so it fits in with the magazines general theme.

TO BE CONTINUED

Milo Double Page Spread Design - Alex Lloyd

For further research Jack and I found that a unique convention 'Little White Lies' includes in all of its magazines was to include a double page spread design relating to its feature film. This double page spread would be the first two pages of the magazine, Jack and I came up with the idea in designing our own version of this, we found 3 images would be used and then repeated throughout the design, these images always have importance within its feature film. For our design we felt it would be best to show an alcohol bottle, a tree and our boy. Jack then went off and came back with this (shown above). We are very pleased with this template and have managed to include a quote from our film also, this quote is the first sentence said by our main character. If we were to feature within 'Little White Lies', this is what we would have in mind for being included on the two first pages.

Further research into Little White Lies - Jack Storer

To further understand Little White Lies i am going to take a look at the key elements of the magazine and attempt a few quick mock ups of the style using our film 'MILO' as the cover film.

through doing this I am gaining an insight into all the elements of this magazine. which in time will help with the writing of the reveiw which hypothetically would get a release inside an issue of Little White Lies.

the first double page of each issue contains a very graphic wall paper based on the title film with a quote on the right hand page. at the top of this post you can see my mock up version for 'MILO' followed by the 2 editorial versions the first for the road, then followed by the Darjeeling Limited.

Jack Storer

Little White Lies Magazine - Alex Lloyd

Little White Lies is a British independent movie magazine that features writing, illustration and photography related to cinema. It releases a bi-monthly Issue, each issue is themed around a single cover film, inspiring the design and editorial content of the entire magazine. The design of each issue has its inspired feature film represented on the cover by an illustration of its lead actor. The cover film also influences interior aspects within the magazine, such as editorial icons, chapter headings and custom typefaces. However, the overall template of the magazine remains the same. I believe Little White Lies would be a perfect magazine to review and feature our short film, it features films from a variety of genres, one of its most recent issues featured 'The Road'.

As you can see this front cover includes a mid close up of the main characters face played by Viggo Mortensen, the image is a screen print which is something we would like to achieve for our poster. This multi layer stencil creates an artistic and unique feel making the facial expressions seem clear.

We would have a similar effect with our poster in the way that we will include a screen print of our main character 'Milo'. It not only looks good but should look as if a child has created it.

Jack and I have been searching through the website and have found a unique convention that Little White Lies includes in each of their magazine, as each issue is themed around a single cover film, Little White Lies includes a design that is iconic for the film for its first two pages.
An important quote for each film is on the right hand side of the double page spread. Jack is going to design our own version of this double page spread with a design that relates to what's seen within our film as well as a quote from our monologue on the right hand side.

(The double page spread for Little White Lies featuring the film: 'The Road'.)

Initial idea's and What we Want as Final. - Group

After comparing all of the initial ideas as a group we have decided on which area's of each poster we like.

FONT: We have all agreed that the font Caroline found and used on her poster (called My Turtle) is the most effective, but we also like the idea of a childs hand writing but were unable to find a font that worked as well as 'My Turtle'

LAYOUT: We have agreed we want to mix a couple of the layout styles mainly Jack's original idea with the close up of the young boys face and title to the right but we will use Caroline's idea of Milo eating his breakfast.

STYLE: We all really like the text idea in Jack's second poster idea, but will need to see the final version first (leave out the stage directions when copying across the script)
Also we will not print the ending of the script as that would give the point of watching thew film away.


AWARDS: We are still unsure on where the awards will be placed, it will probably follow the same layout as Jack's original but we will have to wait and see. we have agreed on using... 'special Jury award prize 1 world int. film festival' 'Cannes festival' and possibly 'Edinburgh'

as for film networks and funding we definitely want to use 'Little White Lies' as this is an art house magazine that we will later be writing for.

http://www.littlewhitelies.co.uk/


COLOUR: Grey scale. we will use a very minimal style using a lot of negative space to create an individual style and trigger questions in our audience.

MAIN IMAGE: We have chosen to use the image of Milo easting breakfast as we believe this holds the best impact, a simple image that triggers lots of questions in the audience.

'Mixtape' Poster - Alex Lloyd

When researching posters of British short films, I noticed this particular one. Luke Snellin's film 'Mixtape' shows its poster as a painting, I feel this connotes its genre being social realist as well as showing it has a low budget. The painting is of a shot used in the film including the main character walking to his next door neighbours house, I like this idea as a poster, it is also in landscape form. The setting within the painting shows a gritty, unwealthy area and portrays its character as a lonely boy.

I like the idea of creating a similar poster for our piece, of which we would have a mid close up of Milo eating his breakfast with his parents in the background arguing. This is one of the most important shots of the film, the blurred focus on the parents hides their identity making the father seem scarier, our main character is in focus, his facial expressions connote his sadness. This would be a landscape poster and would attract a local and city audience in my view. There is enough space for a title as well as awards and quotes. I like the idea of ours being done as a drawing or painting also, it signifies the fact that our main character is a young child but can also help interpret the film as a low budget, social realism short.

Initial Poster Ideas - Alex Lloyd

In our poster I believe it should be one of our main intentions to portray our character as an isolated, lonely child. As of which he is shown as in the film.




This would be a good image for our poster as it not only shows our character as a lonely child but also hides his identity by not showing his face. He is seen climbing a tree in the film and as it is quite an important film I believe it is necessary to have it for our poster.



Another image that shows our childs isolation. In this case it uses black and white to portray the short as a gritty, social realist film, there would be space for a title in the bottom right corner of this image and enough space for a censorship rating as well as awards. In this picture the child is wearing quite gritty clothing, if we were to use this design we would have Milo wearing the clothes he wears throughout our short, I feel the body language and facial expressions are perfect for what we want to portray. These two poster ideas are both portrait and would do well in attracting a local audience as well as social realist fans. I believe both, especially the second image connote it being a social realist film very well.

This image uses colour as its way of attracting an audience, it is eye catching and interesting with three dominant colours. It has the light blue clouds almost clashing with the orange town underneath, my favourite part of this image is the black tree and child. Again this idea works well as Milo climbs a tree within our short film, his tree is his happy place, the darkness of the tree and child makes it stand out from the other dominant colours, due to it being in black, this connotes it being quite sad and lonesome. I feel there could be a lot of things that can be analysed within this image, with enough space again for a title and awards, I believe this poster idea would attract more of a city audience who are not so local. This image would attract an audience who prefer other types genres, not necessarily social realism films. A problem with this image is it may not be typical for a low budget film, I like the idea of it being a painting or drawing, looking back at Caroline and Jack's ideas with it being a drawing, this can connote a child's drawing.

Similar to the other ideas, this type of poster would include our character climbing up a tree, but this time it is shown in shadow form. This idea would be good for connoting a low budget, social realism film. If we were to do two poster ideas, one for a local audience and one for a city audience, we could use this for our local audience poster. Looking at other posters for British social realist films such as 'This Is England', 'Mixtape' and 'Fish Tank', they use a landscape poster to portray its genre. This image would be an obvious connotation of a social realist film.

TO DO LIST! IMPORTANT DEADLINE TOMORROW! - Caroline

Alex - Poster Initial Idea
Storer - Colour code your posts, I did all your old ones but your ones from this week
Group - We need to decide which designs we want to create into our initial poster ideas to be up for tomorrow, are we doing two for different audiences of just the one?
Editing should be good to finish for tomorrow, all we need are folys, are we all going to meet up to do these or is it being done in lessons? I need to tweak the soundtracks a bit but it should all work out.
We need to also get some rushes up ASAP! I have a youtube account I was using to try to upload the soundtrack we can upload them onto if we need.

Good work guys we're nearly there!!

Poster - Jack Storer

my second idea for the poster.

this is not the final version! just a taster of what it would be like.
it follows the same idea as my initial idea, tracing a photo to create an accurate sketch. just this time i would use text. it will build up to the same visual effect as my sketch just every line drawn would be a line from the monologue. i think this could create a very strong image and if the rest of the group agree I will complete a photo in this style.

Jack Storer

Poster Research - Alex Lloyd

When planning what to have as our main image for our film poster, we knew we wanted something creative. We didn't want a photo of Milo as he is seen within the film with a big title above and awards in the corner, as this is seen for all posters. We wanted something different, something unique. When planning different ways to do this we all made rough posters, as you can see for Carolines initial poster idea, her image would be a drawing of our character with limited colours shown, this is an interesting and innovative idea which in our view would be perfect for our social realism and would connote that the main character for our film is a young boy. Whilst creating our initial poster ideas, Jack found a bag with a designed image on it, this image was made out of text and was particuarly interesting. As sound is very important within our film due to the monologue of Milo, it being the only way the audience can sympathise for him, we felt it would be a great idea to create an image made out of our monologue's text. I researched into artwork made from text and found these ideas designed by artists:

These are all clever designs and were looked at when planning how we would design ours. The male face would be far too difficult to create with the software we have. One image that was looked at further on was the image of the fist and how the text has outlined it. Our group came up with the idea in having the text from our monologue outlining the image of Milo sitting down eating breakfast, we would have a bottle also to connote alcoholism within the film. I believe this kind of idea would suit our genre well being unique. Another reason for it is it would show how low budget our film is, most short film posters are quite plain in comparison to Hollywood film posters, it is easy to tell which were made with a smaller budget.

Here are just a few short film posters I found, 'Still' is particuarly interesting as they have not included a photo from the film as their image alike our plans. They have relied on interesting designs and have very little colour making the red seem very eye catching.

Underneath is a rough initial idea of what our image would like designed by Jack Storer, we have decided that we as a group thouroughly like this idea, the final is in process.

Completed Soundtrack - Caroline Robertson

I have completed the soundtrack using Garage Band, and slowed down the temp to fit the scenes better. It will only be used for the opening and credits so it did not have to be very long - we will be able to cut and paste where we want when editing it all together. I tried to give it a sad melody and used a lot of acoustic sound to give it a melancholy feel.


UPDATE : After uploading the soundtrack to our final piece with Alex, we decided it was a bit too happy, although it was okay for the opening we need a sadder feel if we decide to use it throughout the whole film.
I decided to make two soundtracks, both very similar with the same ongoing melody. The first is the happy version for the opening, in C major with a lot of accoustic, and the second which is the sadder version which we may play throughout I changed to D Major with a lot less accoustic, more "emotional" piano and slowed the tempo down very slightly so it still rolls into the opening soundtrack.

Monday 8th - Jack Storer

Alex and I went into the editing suite early today, and put the footage from Friday's shoot onto the Mac. We are very pleased with the outcome of the shoot and think we have more than enough footage to finish the film off. we have linked together a few more shots as well as overlaying and editing the monologue.
We now have our tracking shot completed, and it has worked very well. the final cut of this long take is 24seconds.
1 of the issues with attempting such a long take was audience attention. But i believe this keeps the audiences attention for the full length of the shot. we will show a few people and ask for feedback.

Jack Storer

Initial Poster Idea - Caroline Robertson

A recent film which has been released and is growing in popularity for its hard hitting dramatic storyline is the US film "Precious." Although it is not British, it is a drama which raises many social realism issues such as domestic violence and abuse which is a key theme in our own piece.
It has two posters for its advertising campaign which would have been targetted at different audiences.


This poster is very very simple with very few colours and only one prominent colour - red. This helps the poster to stand out, and I have gone on to use this as inspiration for my initial poster idea. This poster does not give away much about the film, and I think it may have been the first poster release.

My Initial Idea :





I have used few colours to make the main character stand out, though the final would probably be a photograph rather than a drawing. I also found some children fonts which again is putting across the message that the film is about a boy. The tagline is the first line from the monologue, the vodka is prominent in the image, again making it clear that alcohol will play a big part in the film.

Milo Rushes

Here are some of the rushes we have completed throughout our filming period. We are happy with the rushes, especially the final tracking shot.

Final Filming - Abi Black

On Friday we finished our final rushes. Having previously sort out the perfect location to film, my main job of the day was recording our filming using still shots with our camera. When we looked at the location we decided on a quite isolated country road, which was not only safer for Milo to run down but also allowed us to film with Jack sitting in the boot of the car and Alex driving slow enough for Milo to run behind. We also had to find the right tree for the scene where Milo is sitting up and gazing out from it, as it had to be one which Milo could easily climb but also we had to test that it was safe for him to climb first. We managed to take about 5-10 shots of Milo running down the road and so hopefully from this we can use the one which looks the smoothest although we did want a handheld effect for this, so if they do look a bit bumpy it will work with what is going on in the scene.
The next scene we shot was the one of Milo up the tree. We had to be wary of this as we were using natural lighting our timing had to be precise as the sun was setting. We took a variation of shots of him running towards the tree and starting to climb up it which will work with a match on action with the next few shots of him starting to climb about half way up the tree. The shots which we took actually when he was sitting on the branch were over the shoulder shots which look really great, we took these from a variety of angles so when we get them into the editing suite we can choose which ones we like best.
Overall it was a really productive day and we got a lot of footage from it which we can then go on to work with during this week.

Filming Finished - Alex Lloyd

On friday 4th March we managed to finish off the rest of our filming. Jack, Abi and I managed to find the time to go looking for the perfect location in which we could film Milo running across the countryside, we needed a long tracking shot of him running and had planned to do it from the boot of my car. As it was the first time Jack managed to come along, he took part in directing these important shots. The location we chose in the end was 'Back Lane', a countryside road with rare oncoming traffic, this was the perfect spot for our tracking shot as it allowed me to drive withouth any other traffic but was also safe for Milo to run along.

Jack sat in the boot whilst I drove at a slow enough speed for Milo to run close behind, these shots should hopefully look very effective. Once our tracking shot had been filmed, we filmed the scene in which Milo climbs up a tree and sits watching the sun go down. We managed to find a tree that was easy to climb but also had a great view of the sun, Jack and I filmed many establishing shots and ELS of Milo on the tree, whilst Abi took photos that should hopefully look good enough to use as poster ideas. I felt friday went successfully, we managed to get all of our filming finished and organised ourselves quickly managing to finish before it got dark. Once it did eventually get dark, we went back to our main setting (being Milos home) and re-filmed the duvet scene in which Milo hides under his duvet. We felt our first shots didn't quite portray Milo the way we wanted them too but they were also a little too dark.

Both Jack and I shot a variety of shots from different angles and sizes, Abi sorted out the lighting making sure it wasn't too dark but also not obviously artificial as this would effect the realism.

Initial poster idea - Abi Black

For this intial poster design I used photoshop and roughly drew a picture of what I would like on the poster for our film. However instead of a drawing I think that it would fit the genre better if it were a photograph, however a quite desaturated one. Again this is a very basic version of what the poster would have on it, however I like the idea of just having a simple font, and I think the font used here has that "script" effect, and also quite child like. The reason I chose this image is because it is a key point in the film, where you see Milo having to make his own breakfast with his parents in the background. It is also the point in the film where the twist at the end comes into play. As we haven't thought of an tagline yet I just included where it would go on the poster and the vague outline of where we would put the awards and quotes making it look more official.

Filming continued.... - Alex Lloyd

With only two afternoons to spend on filming last week I had to organise when our actor was free, one thing I have found throughout our project so far is that we have had to rush some of our filming due to lack of organisation around our actor. I have learnt that it is very important to know exactly when your actor is free in advance, our problem was that we knew exactly who would be best for our part and didn't ask whether he would be free enough or not. That put aside we have managed to scrape a few afternoons this week in our timetable as well as having tuesday and wednesday last week. This week I had to visit the set and film alone as the rest of my group members were not free the time Milo was. I managed to visit on Monday shooting the shots in which we have a bottle slowly falling and then crashing onto the ground. This was a difficult shot but became easy due to the camera I used. The camera I managed to book out for the week is the large Sony HD camera, this has everything the small Sony does but is larger and has many attachments. One advantage of using this camera was its inbuilt slow motion technique, this made our shots look very smooth throughout the slow motion as doing this on Final Cut Pro can sometimes become a little jaggered.

Wednesday was planned to be the big day where most of the filming had to be done, Milo was free from half past 3. We managed to film a lot of rushes building enough footage to make half the film. These shots included Milo walking into the kitchen and making himself breakfast, his parents arriving home arguing and the exterior shots of Milo on the trampoline. The camera was used for its slow motion throughout the trampoline shots also, these look similar to the Billy Elliot shot of him bouncing up and down making it look very effective. Milo so far has been fantastic, it has been easy to film with him acting very seriously first time. So far I have paid Milo £10 for his acting skills and part throughout our film.

The last scene we have to shoot now is our sequence involving Milo running to a tree and climbing up it, this scene is very important as it enhances the point that Milo has no one to spend his time with and is completely alone in life. One important shot we will focus on is our 17 second shot of Milo running across the countryside. So far filming has gone well and editing is slowly getting there.

Filming Rushes So Far..... - Alex Lloyd

Our first intentions to film were during the half term, we unfortunately couldn't film as much as we would have liked to due to each member of our group never being free together and our actor having a very busy schedule. We also had problems with the weather, in order to keep continuity throughout our short film we would need to film on days with the same weather forecast. The weather we chose was cloudy skies, this is because the weather was said to be cloudy for the week after half term but also it can connote quite a sad, depressed feeling throughout our social realist film.

The week beginning 22nd February we organized for Caroline, Abi and I to go to our location to shoot our first few shots. We did this on the tuesday and managed to film a lot of establishing shots of the house and the surroundings as well as a few interior shots, these included Milo waking up and some nice shots of the props around his house. As director I found that the framing of each shot was very important, this is something that perhaps last year I didn't really work on as much so improving it for our short film was crucial. We managed to use the framing in a way that connotes the house as isolated and alone, much like the feelings of Milo our character. Abi and Caroline worked with the lighting making it seem as much realistic as possible creating continuity between shots, throughout most of our film we will be having natural lighting as we feel this will be best for our genre but throughout our interior shots, due to the time of day we shot them, we needed lighting to be controlled. Whilst they worked on lighting, as director I made sure the props were set out correctly as well as the filming.

The camera we used for these shots was the small Sony HD camera giving us a wide screen format as well as a better picture quality with our rushes. It enabled us to manually control the focus which became very effective with our establishing shots. We were easily able to blur something out in the background with it in focus on something nearby. Overall throughout the week we managed to film on tuesday and wednesday. We filmed enough footage to build our first minute of the film.