Sweet revenge rough cut

Here is an extremely rough cut of the filming that we did, edited on the night of the filming by fellow songbird productions member Emma Taylor. There are still several shots missing and factors such as sound editing and colour correction have yet to be applied but this edit allows us to roughly see the content that we have.
Sweet Revenge - Rough edit from Emma Taylor on Vimeo.

Filming techniques used

In the very first shot of 'Sweet Revenge' we see a shift in the depth-of-field. Depth of field refers to the range of distance that appears 'in focus'/acceptably sharp. This creates a gradual transition and moves the audience's attention to another location on the screen, almost without them noticing.

Depth of Field

The 'Circle of Confusion' was used to see at what point the focus was acceptably focused and when filming I altered the focus ring depending on what degree of focus was required.

The 'Circle of Confusion'

This technique is used in many thriller feature films such as James Bond, so we employed this technique to keep up to date with the latest, most most creative techniques.

Example of depth of field in James Bond

Rule of Thirds

The rule of thirds states than an image is most pleasing when its subjects or regions are composed along imaginary lines which divide the image into thirds. This creates good composition, and not only gives the audience a good view of the main subject but also a good view of the surrounding mise-en-scene.

A grid is used to help co-ordinate the shot.

Rule of thirds grid

The rule of thirds could be seen in many of our shots creating good composition.

Joe - Evidence of rule of thirds

Kym - evidence of rule of thirds

Joe - Evidence of rule of thirds

Name change

Our production was originally going to be titled Reciprocity as it refers to how consequences can be directyly caused by a person's actions.This fits in very well with our storyline as the story is based on a young man who commits susicide after being involved with a gang, he believes that this is the consequence of his actions. However we decided against this title as it is actually quite a difficult word to pronounce and would not commercialize as well if the name did not stick within the target audience's mind. Our new title however is 'Sweet Revenge' this also fits in very well with our production as the main storyline is... When Joe's girlfriend Kym finds out that Joe has killed himslef becuase of a gang, she seeks revenge on them. the title 'Sweet Revenge' is also an oxymoron creating contrast between the two sides, the good and the evil, a convention very commonly seen in thrillers.

Filming - behined the scenes of Sweet Revenge shoot

On Sunday the 17th March myself, the rest of the songbird productions team and also our actors went to our locations with eqipment to film, the filming date was pre planned based on weather forecasts when we knew the weather was going to be suitable for filming. Travel was provided by parents of fellow members of the team, one of which had a large van which was used in order to transport various equipment. The actors were well looked after and were with us for no more than 8 hours on the day with regular breaks for resting, eating and drinking. Of course no film shoot would be complete without encountering some problems, we did encounter a couple during our shoot of Sweet revenge. One of them being a member of the team, Abigail accidentally forgot the keys to her apartment where we were due to film the first scene, this unfortunately caused a 40 minute delay to the start of filming which could have been avoided, other than this we encountered only one other problem which happened right at the end of the day when Abigail caught her leg on some barb wire while shooting on location. The injury was treated at the scene with first aid right at hand and we able to resume filming almost straight away. Other than these minor issues the filming was an overall resounding success. Here are various photographs that were taken throughout the day both during and between takes.

My photo taken while filming with home made dolly and cam

Behined the scenes group photo of our Actors and director

Actress, Jess playing Kym behined the scenes photo

Filming behined the scenes

Filming behined the scenes

Filming behined the scenes

Filming behined the scenes

Actors Jess and Sam on set - photo credit to Emma Taylor

Songbird productions team wrap group photo

Myself with our actor's Jess and Sam on set - credit to Emma Taylor

The shot list

Here is the pre-planned shot list provided by our designated direcor for the shoot Emma Taylor.

Shot list

1. Mid shot - Focus pull - of some grass to Joe and Kym

2. Long shot - Crane - of the bridge/viaduct

3. Mid Close up - of Joe looking depressed

4. Mid Shot - Tracking shot on dolly - of Joe and Kym looking happy

5. Long Shot - Panning - of the lake, this could also be percieved as a point of view shot

6. Mid Close up - of Joe looking depressed again

7. Close up - his pocket as he takes out his suicide note
--- Match on action ---

8. Low angled mid close up - reading the suicide note

9. Close up - of both Joe and Kym

10. Over the shoulder shot - rading the suicide note

11. Tracking mid dolly shot - of kym and joe walking

12. Over the shoulder shot - still reading the suicide note

13. Close up tracking shot - dolly - Kym and Joe holding hands

14. Over the shoulder shot - Joe reading the suicide note

15. Mid - close up - Joe and Kym

16. Over the shoulder shot - reading the suicide note

17. Close up - of the phone as it rings

18. Close up / extreme close up - of joe declind the call

19. Close up - Joe's expression when he has declined the call

20. Close up - his foot going onto the fence ready to jump

21. Mid shot - of him jumping up onto the fence

22. Close up - one last memory of Joe and Kym

--- Green screen ---

23. Tracking shot - from close up to mid shot

24. Close up - of him jumping off the wall

25. Mid close up - of seeing Kym depressed on her bed

26. Mid close up - seeing the photoframe

27. Mid close up - tearing up over the photograph

28. Close up - of Kym breaking down

29. Close up - Of Kym still depressed

30. Tracking shot - close up - putting knife into the bag

--- match on action ---

31. Mid shot - walking out of the room

Risk Assessment

Risk Assessment

When planning our shoot there are some very important things we have bear in mind some crucial health and safety principles so our cast and crew members are safe when out shooting the film.

For the purpose of health, we have to consider giving ourselves sufficient breaks as to not tire ourselves out whilst shooting, as the product of the coursework would be affected but to lack of concentration. As it will be more than a five hour shoot within the day, there will need to be time put aside for a lunch break. As the weather forcast predicts that it will be overcast and cold, coats and warm clothing will be needed to stop us getting too cold on the shoot.

As for safety, there is one crucial issue which has to be addressed – the suicide from off the viaduct. We plan to put a green screen behind another wall which is only one meter off the ground for our actor to jump off and have a wall which appears the same as the one on the viaduct. The closest our actor will get to jumping off the viaduct is leaning up against the edge which is very safe due to the fence which has been placed on either side.

When it comes to filming our production, one of the most important factors that we need to consider is what the weather is going to be like. We need the skies to be slightly over cast for certain scenes in order to connote the  correct mood and atmosphere to match the characters emotions. We also need to film some scenes in sunshine to connote the love and happiness that the characters are feeling in the romantic scene. We have chosen Sunday the 17th of March, a day when everybody on the production team is free and available to film and also a day, which according to local weather forecast's will have the suitable weather that we need for filming. 

Sweet revenge - storyboard animatics

One of the roles I was responsible for in the planning and production of our thriller opening 'Sweet revenge' was the extremely time consuming task of creating the storyboard animatics. As an A level art student I felt as though I was best suited to this task. The storyboard animatics gives us a visual reference to the type of shots we plan to use when shooting, the action going on in each shot and the order in which everything will take place.

Sweet revenge storyboard animatics from Tom Bailey on Vimeo.

Evidence of time management

We have created a private facebook group for the media production of which all of the people involved are members including our two actors. The group is very useful as it allows anybody in the team to constantly update the rest of the group on work they are doing towards the production, they can also share the work quickley and easily through posts in the form of photographs, videos and documents. Through the use of the group we are able to arrange dates and times for location scouting and filming days. We are also able to share important documents that the rest of the group need.