Saturday night I watched greatest movie mistakes on BBC3 presented by Robert Webb. It was so good, spotting loads of continuity errors in all the big movies. I was so shocked. One of my favourite mistakes was seeing the obvious trace of an aeroplane in the sky when the movie was set in roman times. Here's 10 minutes of the 2 hours it was on for, I surprising didn't get bored at all, made me feel a whole lot better knowing that even the big famous films make mistakes too.

So we finally got down to re shooting our film opening which we did on Saturday. Overall it went quite smoothly. However our tripod did not have an attachment for the camera and so Charlotte had to walk back home (took about an hour) and get her tripod instead. Also towards the end of our day, it started to get dark and Alice's sister's room was not well lit, therefore our footage has come out quite dark. This means that at some point we will have to re shoot this as we are not happy with the outcome and me and Charlotte are very fussy!

Apart from those few things, everything else we had hoped for worked perfectly for example our panning shot using the skateboard. This was a successful shot so Charlotte won't have to lie on the floor again. It was absolutely freezing that day and sadly when we first filmed for our opening it was around summer time meaning the weather was warm and so obviously our costumes were meant for summer. Due to continuity I had to wear the same clothes (vest top and cardigan) and so Charlotte wasn't able to wear a coat either because it wouldn't have made sense for me to be without one. Basically we froze. The things we do for media!

Here is the video of our panning shot which we are hoping to use in our film. It does shake a bit but we think this was because we were using the flip, attached to the gorilla tripod, merely taped to the skateboard. We did do a number of takes however we couldn't stop it from shaking. When we do this in our film we will have to find a long flat surface which we can lie on top of Alice's drive as it is block paving.

Debates about representation



So why the fuss? soaps are known for their high emotions. Well, for viewers who have lost a baby to cot death, such a storyline not surprisingly brings back painful memories, however people are saying that it is the case with many of the narratives in other programmes like Coronation street and Emmerdale. In this case the objection was not to having a storyline about cot death but instead how the character of Ronnie was portrayed.

People argue:

“as is all too common, a bereaved mother has been portrayed as deranged and unhinged... For many, EastEnders might be their first or closest experience of a newly bereaved mother's reaction and subsequently they may treat baby snatching as a typical desire”

So in other words they are putting idea's into people's heads.

Personally I do think it is a really sensitive issue and Eastenders have kind of lost it a bit. Realistically how much bad luck could happen on one square and in fact to one person. Ronnie has been rapped by her father, left alone as a child by her mother, watched her child who she believed was dead die, her husband was shot in the head, she was stabbed in the back by her brother who actually turned out to not be her brother, and now when she is finally blessed with some good luck they decide to kill off her only child and add the twisted storyline of her swapping it with another baby. Of course the producers need to entertain viewers and come up with new exciting story lines, but using something so sensitive for entertainment seems to cross the line a bit. I know that you could say that for all the other tragic story lines they've used but I'm sure they've received complaints about those too, it just seems people have been extremely effected by this one in particular.Well I guess that's just my opinion. I know it's just a storyline and eastenders is just a soap which I've watched for years, but it's not the kind of storyline me and my family find entertaining, it's just too depressing and I can understand the point of view seen by viewers who have lost a baby.

In the last couple of lessons we've done lot's of things including practicing the panning shot we are planning on doing using a skateboard. We'll post up the video of us practicing using the flip on the skateboard as soon as its done.

In today's lesson we started looking at ideas for our music. We've found a couple of different cover songs which are un-copyrighted on youtube. We then converted them on fetch mp3 and imported them into garage bands where we split them, pieced the two different songs together to make one, as well as chopping and changing particular parts where we thought it was appropriate. We'll post that up here soon to show the style of music which we are planning on using to suit our genre of comedy.

Just to quickly say, I added some pictures to my previous post showing some more of the shot's which I really liked in the film Sherlock Holmes.

Now for an update of our film opening. In our past few media lessons me and Charlotte (now the only members of group four) have been planning all the footage that we are going to re-film. We've decided to pretty much re-film everything apart from the bus scene and this is due to continuity. We've planned all the props that we will need and we've even included some more interesting shot ideas, which will be revealed soon enough. We've planned the order of which we will film, so that our day can run as smoothly as possible and so that we don't have to waste time worrying about what to do or panicking that we've left any vital props at home.

Now all we need to do is actually get filming. We will have to wait till our location (Alice's house) is available and also wait till the weather gets a bit better. This is because we need to re-film the out door scenes, for example when Charlotte is lying on the ground in the drive. It wouldn't be fair to stick her on the floor in the rain (although it might be quite funny). A lot of what we are going to add is there to explain some of the questions that were asked by the class when we showed them our draft. For example someone said 'Why would the window and blind be open in the morning?' and also 'Why would there be a random person outside on the drive?'. Well Charlotte was meant to be Kate's (me) sister, however this was not made particularly clear. All will be explained and made clear when we eventually re-film and get some new footage. This day of filming will be a lot easier as we now know how to improve previous footage and also we know the location very well so we do not have to spend time planning where the shots will be taken from.

Yesturday night I watched Shelock Holmes. I've been wanting to see it for ages now. It was so cleverly made and I spotted loads of really good shots, sadly far too sophisticated for us to try and use. A shot that really stood out was when Holmes was being chased down the street by the bad giant man. The camera is placed up quite high (birdseye view) and the shot begins with the camera shooting upside down. As they run down the street the camera follows them as they pass underneath it, eventually turning itself the right way up. It then continued to film them running further away from the camera. Another main thing that stood out to me was the location of the sewer. They were able to capture some amazing shots because of it, I loved it. Also when Holmes jumps out the window of palament into the river, I thought the framing of that shot was stunning, however I couldnt help but laugh, as Holmes looked really tiny from such a far distance.

Here's the trailer for the film, you might be able to spot some of the shots which I was talking about..



Here are some of the other shots that I also really liked.

Shot from underneath, making Holmes look bigger, stronger and perhaps more intimadting.

Even though Blackwood is behind the bars he seems a lot more in control and here Holmes looks perhaps weaker and more vulnerable. Of course we know that Holmes knows exactly what Blackwood is up to, perhaps he is covering this up which is why he is appearing to be weak infront of him.

I thought this was a very clever well thought out shot as it almost represents her character. She has two different sides to her, her good, caring side and her tough bad side.

This shot must have been done using graphics, however it is still a really amazing shot, it is just as effective and does look realistic.

This shot has been cross focused. The camera focuses on Holmes but still has the other fighter in shot. The effect almost seperates his character from the rest of the world whilst he is thinking of what injuries to inflict on his apponent. During this section the footage has been slowed down showing us the fight in 'slow motion'. This creates more impact for when he attacks the other fighter. It was infact a really effective clever idea.

Here's the snorricam, and as you can see the main thing holding it in place is the big velcro belt (actually used for back problems). The tripod is nailed into the thick wooden block which is pressed against my belly however it can be removed and placed back with the original tripod when needed. The metal pole can be adjusted allowing the camera to move closer to me or further away, which will be really handy. It feels surprisingly comfortable and secure and overall I'm really pleased with it. Obviously it doesn't look like a professional one but it works just as well and I can't wait to use it when making our film!

Excuse the quality of the picture it was taken on my phone, and the case slightly got in the way..

Ok everyone..moment of truth!

The Snorricam has finally been made and heres a little video to show the effect of it. This is most likely how it will be used in our film (getting out of bed) although I'm obviously not in costume or on set.

Just thought I'd update on our progress for making a snorricam, this time not made out of cardboard boxes which we did in lesson. I've told my dad our ideas and showed him some designs of the snorricam and he's decided to have a go at making one for us. I've spoken to him and disussed ways in which we can make one using the limited materials we have around the house, however we have some really well thought out, realistic ideas! He's really good when it comes to inventing or making things so I'm hoping if all goes well it'll be done by this week!

Over the Christmas holidays it snowed! So because of this we couldn't do any of our filming in the first week as some of the scenes we need to re film is outdoor, and obviously we have to take continuity into consideration. We then wanted to try and film this Monday on our inset day, however our location isn't available, therefore we will have to arrange another day to continue with our film.

Me being me, I wanted to make the most out of the snow and so I decided to go out into my garden in pitch dark, 11 o'clock at night and film something. The original footage was just of me literally walking around the garden ruining the fresh snow. However when I imported it off of my phone onto imovie I had some ideas, although not much to do with our genre of comedy. I managed to cut the footage, muddle it all up to make some sort of storyline and produced this little film. It's no Oscar winning film and it's not suppose to be completely serious, however it gave me something to work on and experiment with over the holidays.

I used imovie HD to make this and so it was nice to experiment with something a little more advanced. Its all point of view footage and all the sounds were recorded over the top, most of them me (quite embarrassing), except for one or two sounds and the music which I found off of YouTube and converted into mp3 sound tracks.

Considering it's only 28seconds long, it took me ages to put it together. Recording all the dialogue over the top was particularly time consuming. I had to record it through photobooth,  then import the clip into imovie HD where I then had to extract the audio and delete the visual clip. I had to do this with nearly every single sound heard in the film, and some I had to re do a number of times. However because I used imovie HD I was able to adjust the volume of particular words in a sentance or specific sounds that I wanted to make louder or quiter which saved me having to re record certain parts. This saved me a bit of time. Also because the film wasn't planned it was hard to find footage that all ran smoothly together and so I spent ages finding the right place to cut and edit clips together. Also when I eventually came to edit it, I had a number of different perhaps better ideas that I could have done, however by this time the snow had melted!

Anyway..here's my little film..