Plot Change

Following editing our footage from Tuesday, we decided that it would have too much footage time in the office if we had both characters working in offices. Therefore we have got rid of Grace's job as we feel this also makes it more clear that Grace is dependent on Isaac and therefore may cause more problems in the relationship.

W.H.

Filming Diary Entry 3

Yesterday's filming was extremely successful as we managed to get all the shots we need in good time. We started off in the office, doing all the shots of both Grace and Isaac's work places. The office we used was perfect as it was big enough to look professional and successful for Isaac's job but at the same time, it was small enough for us to be able to frame it well. For Grace's office it was a bit more complicated as it was hard to disrupt a busy office to film. Instead we used the empty office next door to Isaac's and used the photocopier to make it look like she was lower down than Isaac's position. We also used articificial lights to make it look like it was later at night to suggest that she was overloaded with work. 

After lunch, we went back to Clapham to film the scenes outside and in the house. We used Bea's car in place of Isaac driving away and then took a number of shots from different angles of Grace running after it. This was quite difficult as although we wanted the handheld effect, by running with Thea, the camera work was too bumpy. We then tried a mixture of both zooming and running with Thea from both behind and in front. The lighting was perfect as the sun set was just beginning and so it was quite grey and depressing light.

Following this, we used the light to create an even more dark and depressing shot when Isaac walks away from Grace. We used the alley at the bottom of Bea's road which echoed the shot of the argument on the bridge in Blue Valentine. We were really pleased with the lighting and composition of this shot as it helped show how their relationship going downhill.

We then went back to my house to film all the argument shots of them at night. This was perfect timing as by this time it was dark so we used the glass area in my kitchen with the natural nighttime light from outside whilst using artificial lights as well.

W.H.

Filming Schedule 3

Next Tuesday we plan to film the remaining shots of our trailer. These shots are heavily based around the office scenes and also consist of some pick-up shots of their arguments at home. Since we will be moving around London, we need to make the best of our time in each location. Here is our plan:

12.00pm-2.00pm - Nick Curtis Office

Shots 21-26, Shots 30-31
We are filming in a large office with lots of different rooms, therefore we will be able to film both Grace's office scenes and Isaac's office scenes in the same building, whilst making it look like completely different places. Although we have told Bea's dad that we will be filming, we have allowed 2 hours for filming in case the offices need to be used at certain points.
We will be using Nick's (Bea's dad) office as it is large and looks very professional for Isaac's office as this shows that he is more successful than Grace. For Grace's office, we will be using the community chairs in the hallway to show that she doesn't have a very high up position.

3.00pm-4.00pm - Streets

Shots 38, 48, 54
We will be filming outside Bea's house for the shots of Grace chasing the car, following Isaac. This way it will be a fading light which will be good as it will emphasise the greyness and depression we want to convey at this point.
We will then film shot 38 when Isaac walks away from Grace when it is a bit darker because it emphasises their separation even further.

5.00pm-6.00pm - Inside house

Shots 33, 34, 39, 44, 45, 50, 51
These are the shots of them arguing at night. These are all 2 second shots so will be quick to film. It will be dark so we will use artificial lights but still keeping it dark.

W.H.

Final Ident

W.H.

Ident Construction

Today I worked with the Motion package to create the ident. However, after working through the generators and playing around with them, I found a more interesting way to form the letter of the ident through swirls which could form an 'O':

I changed the colour of the swirls to make it look more professional so that it changed with the ident. I then wanted to create a matching colour scheme so I planned to make the title of the production company that same colour of the final 'O' and then incorporate possibly the white and lighter blues in other ways.

However, before I created the title, we needed to find a new title for our production company as we needed to fit it to the 'O'. We therefore looked up words that began with 'O' and were related to visual effects. We finally decided to use 'Oculus' which means an eye or round dome, and titled our production company 'Oculus Productions.'

I added movement to the title as well as the swirls so that the 'Oculus' appeared as soon as the swirls formed the 'O', and then added 'Productions' as a later flash underneath the main title. Like many other idents, I chose to keep the title frozen for a couple of seconds so that the title of the company was clear.

W.H.

Graphics Practice

For our graphics in the trailer when we showcase the actors, we were planning to create something similar to the Like Crazy graphics which use light and colour. At school we tried to replicate this through the programme Motion, but after playing around with it for a while, we found it difficult to create exactly what we wanted.

Over the holidays we began to think more about other ways we could create the graphics. After playing around on the camera for a bit we noticed we could focus and zoom in on lights really closely and by moving the camera around, we could create a similar effect to that in Like Crazy. Since we haven't had access to FinalCut Pro at home, we tested out our shots on iMovie so we knew exactly what we could create on the real programme at school.

iMovie is a very simple programme, automatically installed in Macs and offers little editing abilities in comparison to FinalCut Pro. However, it allowed us to have an idea of what it may look like to use them with titles.

Although the quality was not as good, we were actually surprised with how well we could make it look like what we wanted on iMovie. So that we can remember what we did, these are the steps that we went through, so that we can replicate this to a better quality on FinalCut Pro:

• Slow the speed of the footage to 50% so that it doesn't look so manic, also allowing us to have more footage to work with.
• Font was 'Gill Sans - Light' 
• Title effect was zoom which really worked as it moved with the background
• Timings of footage we used:

'There is no life worth living' + 'George Edwards' - 26-29s

'if without' - 33-34s

'the one you love' - 35s on

'From Willa Marston' - 12-14s

'Thea Hope' - 23-25s

W.H.

Degrees of Separation

Although we have not fully chosen 'Degrees of Separation' as our title, we came up with an idea for our poster that could possibly work with this title. As already suggested, we thought about recreating the idea of lots of different phrases on the poster from Like Crazy, and so thought about breaking up the poster into sections. This could represent the 'Degrees', so if we started off at the top of the poster with words relating to a happy relationship, showing the beginning of Grace and Isaac's relationship, moving down the poster to more unhappy words right down to the bottom. Since the title must be the most important aspect of the poster, we would need the rest of the words to be faded so that the title is still the clearest thing. 

This is an idea we had as our version:

W.H. B.M.

Basic Poster Ideas (Fonts)

As a way to test out some of our ideas of fonts on posters, we used a basic picture of a couple from the internet and placed our fonts over the top. Since we wanted to incorporate ideas from the poster of 'Like Crazy', we thought that placing the title over the picture would be the best idea because then we could add in other faded words later.

JulesLove:

As suspected, this looks very young and happy and therefore gives of the wrong vibe as we want it to look more serious. It also draws too much attention away from the image as the font is so detailed and delicate.

Roadway:

I love this font as I think it means that we can place it in an interesting way as it changes size. This could be used to our advantage, for example in the sample above, we can make sure the photo stays the most important centre of attention but still making the title very clear also. I prefer the positioning of the font in the second sample rather than the first as I think it looks more interesting and professional, whilst the first one is quite dull and looks more like a leaflet. 

Boarder:

I also really like this font as it is so bold yet simple. However, like the JulesLove font, it may cause a problem of drawing attention away from the poster. From this problem we came up with the idea of cutting out bits of the letters (For example, a hole in the 'D' and 'g') to reveal more of the picture underneath. We originally discussed the idea of having a blank poster with the photo only coming through bits of cut out letters but then decided that the audience would not be able to see enough of it and therefore gage enough of the genre of the film. We then thought about fading the main photo but brightening the bits coming through the letters so therefore the audience can see the full image but important bits of the photo are highlighted through the letters. We will try this out when we have access to photoshop back at school.

W.H. B.M.

Graphic Font Samples - Posters

Although generally the title font used in the trailer is the font used on posters, in Blue Valentine the font used on posters is completely different to that used in the trailer. 

Trailer: 

Poster:

We wanted to explore this type of change in font and style so we looked at similar types of fonts on DaFont. If we recreated this style, we could still keep the simple fonts within the trailer and then use a completely different font on the poster. We liked how it is clearly a love story (aside from the tagline on the poster) through the 'V' as a heart and so looked for childish and clearly heart-shaped fonts.

JulesLove:

I really like this font as I think it works in conveying a style to do with love but at the same time is more interesting than being completely childish. However, I am slightly worried that this would also come across as a teen film as it could be seen as that.

KBBonjourSweetheart:

I really like the simplicity of this font. It would match very well with the simple font used in our trailer. It is also quite similar to the font used on the Blue Valentine poster. However, I think it may be too delicate and thin to be used on a poster as it would not draw the attention of the eye from our audience. 

Sweethearts:

Although I like how neat and simple this font is, I think is it very difficult to read. Also I think it is possibly too childish for the style we are aiming for.

However, when looking through the fonts, I also liked the look of these fonts for the poster as I feel they leave lots of room to play around with effects.

Roadway:

 Boarder:

W.H.

Ident Planning 1

We have decided to use the same production company name that we used for our AS-level coursework but create a different ident. Our chosen name was 'Silver De Courcy Films' or SDC. Although our trailer is for a low budget indie film, we wanted to take some inspiration from the moving idents used in  Optimum Releasing.

Our initial idea was to use a moving light to form the letter of the company's title. This grew into the idea of a lightning bolt forming an 'S' and following into the full title of the company. This use of light is very popular in a number of idents we have looked at such as Optimum Releasing:

We wanted to create this same sort of flashlight effect which goes across the title and highlights it. Therefore our basic idea was to create a lightning flash to form the 'S' and then follow the rest of the title through with a flashlight effect. 

W.H.