Production Progress - 17th November

Today, Chauncy School had an inset day so we saw this as an opportunity to get some filming done, as we had whole day to work on the project without the hassle and crowds of the school.

Sticking to our new revised production schedule, we set out to film the "leaves falling upwards" scene. On our walk to school we noticed an old oak tree which had leaves already falling off. The idea of throwing a large bundle of leaves into the air would b better than just falling random leaves falling.

The image above shows Ashley and Jon position both camera and character in the perfect place to capture the leaves as the fall, whilst I climbed on top of a small bricked building with a bundle of leaves beside me, seen in the picture. As we filmed, out of the way, I threw the leaves in to the air in short bursts making it look as if the leaves were really falling from the tree. The whole idea of this shot is again, to bring in the surrealness of our characters life, when will you ever see leaves falling upwards and why?

As we were walking back to the media room, the group had an instantaneous idea of using the dark, dim looking area behind the stage along with the lighting equipment, newly bought in for the media department to film images of our character in "pain", linking in the car crash part to the story. By using the light it brought a "chiaroscuro" effect to our characters face. As Jon filmed Ashley pulling different faces, I switched the light on and off, giving the whole sequence a flickering light effect.

This is the final result of our chiaroscuro effect on Jon...

Revised Production Schedule

Production Progress - 7th November

Today's lesson was the first back after receiving our first cut feedback. After receiving this information we decided to achieve a higher grade we were going to have to go back and re-film specific parts, relating to the feedback. We decided to sit around as a group and choosing certain times on when working on these parts would be suitable for all of us. By looking over the feedback as a group and discussing ideas we thought up better ideas to replace original thoughts. One new idea we're going to use is, instead of our character being in hospital, he;s actually going to be in a funeral eulogy, linking into our final shot more than the whole hospital idea. The cutting of the walking towards Ashley's house scene will be done as it took up to much space and could be filled with a much more interesting piece of footage. Two new ideas were also discussed. Our teacher suggested using our character walking backwards but other people around him walking forwards. Along with a leaves falling up sequence. These two new ideas were ideal as they both related to our aim of "things not being right/weird".

After the productive discussion we needed to have a way of knowing when to be working on our production in the allocated time we had left before deadline day, 12th December. I volunteered on doing the job of creating a revised production schedule. This new schedule would show us the time where we are either filming, editing or not working on the production due to other school commitments. By sticking to this production schedule our new we will have our improvements done with time left over for a redo, if needed

Our group discussion of our first cut feedback.

Me, working on the revised production schedule on Microsoft Excel.

Our first draft of the original revised production schedule.

First Cut Feedback

Today was the first cut deadline, 31st October. Our feedback would be recorded by our teacher and another group providing us constructive criticism on our positive and negative sides to our work so far.


The feedback is broken into different sections, targeting the main areas of camera work, mise en scene and editing. Here is the feedback we received;


Holding Shot Steady

• First zoom out shot on Ashley - re do without the camera jerk, or use montage to cover the unsteady look.

Framing a Shot

• Good shot to open with (close up of Ash)

Appropriate Material

• Use beat at start of the video to link to suitable visual.


• Corridor shot - emphasise that it is strange - use empty corridor twice


• Improve sots by hedge.


• Approaching pump house, interesting - develop this further.


• Ashley's house boring - change.


• Add shot (school) to blank sheet of paper (dinner table shot) - reference to the "streets" video.

Selecting Mise en Scene

• Good noir shadow as Ashley leaves bed.


• Pictures are good ideas, but don't come across them.


• Last shot - good however, perhaps cover Ash with the sheet.

Editing for Meaning

• Start the music after captions.


• Stress the drama of the eyes opening - sound effect beep.


• Sitting down at the table scene - cut out the empty chair part.


• Good transition to school corridor.


• Good effect - paring action with beat in music.

Varied Shot Transitions, Caption and Other FX

• Use reverse effect - Ash moving in one direction, other people moving backwards?


• Leaves falling upwards?

Use of Sound with Images/Editing

• Some good ideas

Overall Comment

"Good overall idea, but some shots lack impact - go for more strangeness/ weirdness, build up uncertainty in viewers - can they trust what they are feeling? Colour in last shot is good, use spot colour at other points".

First Cut Production

This is our first cut of music video which will receive feedback which will determine if our presentation so far is heading towards a high grade or we need to go back and re-film certain scenes or add some new scenes in.

This presentation is missing several special effect scenes as they haven't been fully completed yet.

Production Progress - 31st October

Today was the showing of our first cut of our production. Just before we showed the work so far Ashley just tidied up a few of the shots and added the sepia effect on the shots which needed it. As a group we we're all pleased with the work so far.

As Jon had trouble with the footage given to him before, the special effects had not been added to the scenes which needed it, meaning the video does not match our storyboard just yet. Other than that fault we we're ready to present our first cut.