Production Diary

 1/11/12We were first put into our groups and we were told that we would be making our own film opening. Our group was myself, Phoebe and Amara. We first discussed the genre of the film we wanted to make and we spoke about different ideas that we had.

 

2/11/16-The next lesson we further discussed our ideas and decided on making  a teen drama where a young girl goes missing.

 

 3/11/16-The lesson after this we thought about names for our film and researched a few phobias relating to loneliness and isolation. We also thought of other things to do with these themes. We decided to use “Panophobia”, meaning “the fear of everything”.

 

4/11/16-The next lesson we started to plan out the cast, characters and the storyline. We decided on three main characters; Erin, Ilsa and Amber.

 

 5/11/16-The lesson after this we worked together to produce a PowerPoint presentation of all the ideas we had so far. WE did this over the course of a few lessons and when we finished we presented it to the class as a film pitch.

 

 8/11/16-In the next lesson we made a shooting schedule. This included the locations , dates and times that we would be filming.  We also made a storyboard for each scene and the shots that it would include and for how long each shot would last. In this lesson we also made a prop list that included prices.

 

 9/11/16-The next lesson we spent researching different videos that we could gain inspiration from. We looked at music videos that depicted teen rebellion and loneliness, and some videos that had reversed scenes in them which was a main point of inspiration.

 

 10/11/16-The next lesson we made a mood board showing the themes that our film would include. We also did a risk assessment for our filming process.

 

 11/11/16-The next lesson was spent making the missing poster and writing the script for mine and Phoebe’s voiceover. Before we made these things we spent a while looking at real life missing posters and looking at missing people websites to make sure that our poster looked realistic. We also looked at real missing pleas that were on YouTube , which helped with writing the script.

 

 12/11/16-The next lesson we decided to change our location. Because of our decision to film at the arcade in the Chelmsford Tenpin Bowling alleys we needed to call them to check if it was okay to film there - once we called up we were told to email them , which we then did and waited 48 hours for a reply.

 

 13/11/16-The following Monday we began to film. We did this at Amara’s house after school, taking a couple of hours to fully set up the camera on a tripod and think about how we wanted to frame our shot. For this scene, Phoebe and myself were the actors while Amara was behind the camera.

 

 14/11/12-The following lesson we went up to a quiet and empty classroom so that we could record our voiceover. We recorded it on both my camera and Amara’s phone, in order to compare the sound quality and see which recording would work best for our film.

 

  15/11/12-The lesson in-between then and the second time shooting were spent editing the footage that we had filmed.

 

 16/11/16 -That Thursday we went to film at the arcade. We took a disposable camera with us to take the photos that we would later be burning. Here we filmed some of our montage scenes.

 

25/11/16-Our next filming session was was on the following Sunday at around 5 o'clock in Phoebe’s back garden. This is where we filmed the burning photos and the scene where the missing girl both holds the lighter and watches the come home plea on YouTube,  - we met in the evening because we needed it to be dark in order to show the flames.

 

27/11/16- The next lesson was spent with me editing and uploading the work we had done so far onto my YouTube channel and the blog. We also redid the story board, adding in the shot types and times. We also decided on a song that would best match our film.

 

28/11/16- When our first draft was complete it was presented to the class. In the next lesson we looked at our feedback and took some key point and typed them up. Amara created the poster for our film whilst me and Phoebe edited.

 

29/11/12- The next lesson while I edited, Phoebe and Amara began to think of different ways to market our film. They decided that marketing techniques would include social media accounts and posters on buses. Phoebe created the poster for the bus and Amara made the twitter page.

 

30/11/12 -For the next lesson whilst I edited, we continued to upload what we had done so far on to our blogs and looked back over feedback given to us.

 

02/12/16-This lesson, we took another disposable camera and re-shot some photos for our burning photos/credits sequence, as the feedback given to us mentioned that some of the original photos were too dark to be seen properly.

 

03/12/16- The next lesson we redid some shots for our montage sequence so that we had more shots other than just at the arcade. We did this around the school.

 

05/12/16-The next lesson was spent with me editing and Phoebe and Amara ticking off our checklist and going over anything we still needed to do.

 

6/12/16- We remade a version of the storyboard on Prezi including all of the shots and scenes.

 

7/12/16- I completed editing and added Film4’s logo to the start of the film opening as our institution – we also added Phoebe’s company logo.