Crash scene experiment (Beth)

Once the hospital pub scenes are filmed, all that's left is the actual crash itself. 

We have decided to do this by filming two cars reversing away from each other, and then using the post production time to edit the footage so it plays backwards to give the impression of the two cars driving towards each other at speed. Just before they meet, there will be a cut to black as we will not be filming an actual impact. Myself and a friend who also drives will be attempting this over the course of the next week to give us an idea of the outcome. 

Pub filming (Beth)

We are hoping to film our pub scenes this Sunday at a pub that Sarah is currently sorting permission for. 

Sadly I will be unable to attend, however the rest of the group and our actresses will head down in the afternoon. 

We have decided that although our scenes are set at night it would be easier to film in the afternoon and then edit the lighting in the post production stage. Last year Becky and I worked on our thriller film together and we encountered a lot of problems when trying to film in the dark and the lighting we had just wasn't enough, which meant we then had to change the colours and contrast on the footage causing the imagine to become slightly distorted and grainy. However, we are hoping that the natural light, additional light from street lights and the key lights we will use will be enough.

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Location trouble (Beth)

Unfortunately we haven't yet found a pub to film our scenes in. 

I visited one local to me in Crawley on Monday but the manager was not in, and so was told to call today and ask but sadly permission was not granted.

It has been difficult to find one that fits out requirement, it needs to have rather a lot of light particularly from street lamps, and have access to a car park. 

However we have a few more options around Haywards Heath which we are currently looking into. 

Hospital filming 22/10/14 (Beth)

A focus pull from our actress to the table behind her.

Overall filming today was a success, and we are all very happy with the shots that we have. We were very lucky to get the opportunity to film at the Queen Vicotoria Hospital in East Grinstead, and they even provided us with props!

We were given to use;

An oxygen mask

A bed

Sheets

A blanket

A table

Bandages

A drip

A syringe

A hospital gown

We were very thankful for these, it was more than we were expecting and it made our scene seem so much more realistic. I also purchased some fake blood and gauze before hand which we used to add wounds to our actress. The gauze we dabbed some blood on and tied around her head to make it look like she was bleeding through. We then used one of my makeup brushes to add a thin cut above the eyebrow and on the lip. We also added blood to the drip which we taped to her hand, and then sucked up the tube so that the blood looked as if it were coming directly from the incision.

The bandages and pads that the hospital provided us with we also splattered with blood and left on the table next to the bed with the syringe and some surgical tape.

Over the course of the next two days we are planning to film the car crash scene and then move on to the editing.

Sarah setting the white balance.

Dress rehearsals of key scenes - (Sarah)

Dress rehearsal

To make sure our film runs smoothly and everything is planned precisely, we have had a dress rehearsal for the actresses. We went to the hospital the day before filming to make sure the actress knew her lines and so we could see which shots would look best. Here are some photos I took from the film rehearsal:

Hospital Location Filming(BECKY)

                                         
                                          Our group experimenting with the hospital lights

Bandages

We filmed our hospital scenes today at Queen Victoria Hospital in East Grinstead where our drunk driving character is in a coma.

We were able to use a resuscitation training room to use as our main filming set. We were provided with various utilities including syringes, bandages and hospital surgery lights which we used both to light our scene as well as add the iconography or a real hospital setting.  

These lights were great for us to use as they were very adaptable. we were able to move them around the room safely and dim them so that we could adjust how much lighting was needed for particular scenes. In many cases these lights were too dramatic and intense for  scenes so we decided to use the umbrella lights instead combined with one of the hospital lights to create a more muted effect.

syringes/tubes

fake blood

  We also used materials such as bandages, syringes, cannulars, oxygen masks and hospital gowns as part of our characters costume to convey that this character has been in a serious accident, with help from the fake blood we used to suggest her injuries.

Hospital bed

We were fortunate enough to be able to use one of the facilities hospital beds in which our actress would lay on. We were provided with bedding to create the appearance of a realistic hospital bed.

We borrowed a member of staff for one particular scene where the supposed 'Mothers' hand touches the patients. We did this as her age was more that of a mother to a teenagers age, and her hands appeared less youthful. 

Hospital Gown

To film the ECU shots of the characters face we had to place the tripod on the hospital bed over the character to make the tripod and camera more stable. This was to prevent any shaking in the shots and enabled us to place the camera strategically in a way to achieve the best shots we could. 

The only problem that occurred when doing is this was that the camera operator had to kneel on the bed to reach the camera and operate it. This caused a small amount of shaking as it was hard to keep still but this was easily fixed by another member of the group holding the tripod to keep it stabilized.

We spent plenty of time during dress rehearsal to thoroughly plan our shots and how the sequence would pan out. We told our actress what sort of role she would be playing and how she would need to act in order to convey a teenager that had been in a serious accident and had ended up in a coma.

control panel

Operating tray

There were plenty of other utilities that we could have used more in these scenes but we felt as though they weren't needed, so we just left them as a background object/ decor.
We also were not allowed to used a monitor screen that we had originally planed to used in our focus pull shots to increase the intensity and tempo of the scene. Instead we decided to used an operating tray in which we placed blood bandaged and syringes to make it appear as though she had been operated. We still took the same shot that we originally wanted but just replaced the monitor with the tray.

Overall filming today was a huge success and we managed to film all the shots we needed to used in creating the sense of a hospital setting and coma patient.

Lighting

Our lighting will vary location to location;

Hospital

During the hospital scene, we would like the lighting to be as bright and white as possible. We are really keen to show Sophie's distance from reality due to her coma, and the in-between life and death state that she is in.We will use three point lighting to eliminate shadows within this scene.

Pub

Filming inside the pub we are hoping to use quite a lot of orange and yellow lighting to represent the warmth and comfort felt by the characters. We will use the lighting available to us inside, as well as some filters if need be.

Outside the pub and on the street the lighting will be minimal, and we will use low key lighting to create shadows around our characters and create a sense of mystery and danger, representative of the car crash that will follow. 

Roadside

When filming on the roadside, lighting will again be dark and lots of shadows created. However, we need to make sure we have some form of key lighting so that the remains of the car and characters injuries can be made out clearly.

Lighting is used to add mood and drama to a shot, to help make objects appear more 3D and to highlight the outline of an object of character. Three point lighting enables the director to illuminate the subject in the shot however desired, while controlling all shading and shadows.

Key Light
The strongest out of all three, the key light has the most influence on the shot. It is placed on one side of the subject, causing one side to be illuminated and the other in darkness or in shadow. High Key Lighting produces soft edges and and no shadows, often associated with realism, while Low Key Lighting produces more shadows and areas of darkness, used to create a tense and mysterious atmosphere. Reflectors can be used to help balance out the light.
 
Fill Light
This is a secondary light, and is placed on the opposite side to the key light, filling in shadows and helping to make the subject to appear softer. As the role of the key is to only allow us to see a little more detail, it is not as intense as the key light, and similar reflectors can also be used in order to maintain the balance between the two.


Back Light
The back light is placed behind the subject and lights for the rear. Rather than providing direct light, its purpose is to provide definition and subtle highlights around the subjects outline. It also helps separate the subject from the background, resulting in them appearing more 3D.
We tried out different techniques with each of the lights, creating different shadows and areas of darkness. In this picture, we held a spotlight next to the side of Becky's face. this then put one side in full light while the other remained heavily shadowed. This then made her appear more mysterious, a technique that we would really like to use within our thriller in order raise tension.

Titling Ideas

Love You Forever
This films titling differs from traditional stereotypical titling of many films. This is because of the fact that the titles actually occur at the end of the film, the producer has chosen to do this to reveal what has happened in the film to the audience.
Throughout the film we see a woman clutching a baby tightly and sincerely, near the end she falls asleep with the baby on a couch, when she gets woken up by her husband the baby has gone the husband then lays some paperwork next to her which reads: 'In the loving memory of'. If the film ended like this then the audience may still be in doubt as to what has happened in the film, therefore the titles are very important as they eradicate the enigma of the audience.
The Title sequence itself is very clever, it starts of as a poem (as seen above) which relates to the events of the film then part of the poem fades away to reveal the title that was in the first line of the poem.
The font is simple and in plain white most likely representing the tranquility and innocence of a baby child.

This could inspire us for our film titles as putting a message or slogan at the end, such as a drink driving slogan, could leave our audience with food for thought and a lasting impression.

Character development - Costume, body language, speech and makeup

Sophie

Sophie is an 18 year old girl from Haywards Heath. The audience see her in two different locations, and in two different settings.

The first time the audience see her she is laying in a hospital bed. Her hair is messy and greasy, to show the length of time she has been at the hospital. There are various cuts, cuts bruises and grazes across her face, particularly around her cheeks and her eyes. Her skin is very pale, and whats left of her makeup has smudged around her eyes and her lips. At this point, all the audience can here is the beeping of a monitor in the background, and so paired with her pale skin and her wounds it is unclear whether she is alive or not. There is a drip in her hand, shown through various close ups, and more bruises can be seen up her arms. Her injuries suggest to the audience that she has been in some sort of accident, although at this point it is unclear what exactly happened. The lighting around her is very white and bright, which represents her distance from reality and the 'in between' state she is in.

When the audience see her during the bar scene, her costume is completely different. She is dressed up, wearing a nice shirt, shirt and heels. Her makeup is done, with particular detail to her eyes and her lips. Her hair is styles, and falls neatly on her shoulders. Her whole persona is different, and her dialogue is spoken very happily and bubbly. Her confident language and happy facial expressions paired with the effort she has made with her appearance suggest to the spectator that she is an outgoing person.




When the spectator see Lucy in the bar, she too is dressed up. Her hair is also styled and her makeup done, although more subtle that Sophie's. Her clothing makes less of a statement, with her simply wearing a nice top and a pair of jeans matched with a pair of boots. When she speaks there is an element of happiness and enjoyment, although her body language suggests that she is much more laid back and timid than Sophie. This represents the relationship between the two, and suggests that Sophie is perhaps more dominant.

Research into effects - (Sarah)

Research into effects:

Video on transitions:

Saturation -

Saturation is often dulled in hospital scenes to convey negativity and a serious atmosphere. I have researched into many hospital scenes, but one example is 'My Sisters Keeper'. Although this film doesn't relate to our film, the use of saturation can still be applied. The use of a slightly more monochrome/blue toning is the stereotypical of hospitals as it usually has connotations of blue.
 

Dissolves -

To help create the effect the main character 'Sophie' is drunk, I think it would be best to use point of view shots in the car and use many dissolves to convey a blurry effect which shows alcohol has limited her clarity of sight and that it is unsafe for her to drive.

White fade -

We will be using a few white fades in and out. The first being the titling, as the corridor doors open, a fade to white appears and the titles appear. This fade to white is used to suggest the light streaming in and then it is clearer to see the title of the film.


The other white fades in and out are used to represent flashbacks. They will indicate the change of time and location (back to the event of how the accident took place). I've researched into how other films used flashbacks, these include a range of techniques such as a certain sound effect used, a change of screen colour, change of grain and a ripple effect. However, my favourite effect was the white fade, an example of this is in 'Without A Trace'. I used white fade flashbacks in my AS film which I think worked well. I also found an effect called 'Light rays' on Final Cut Pro which gave a strong indication of a flashback so we could also use that slightly to give the effect of a blur of the flashback transition.

• http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FlashbackEffects

Cut to black -

A straight cut to black at the point the two cars collide will indicate the crash and gives a very dramatic effect. We were considering using a fade, however I think it would be much better to use a cut to black as it gives the audience more of a shock and creates an effect of drama.

Reverse of film for accident -

At the point of the accident; because it would be obviously highly dangerous to try and fake a car accident by stopping the cars just before they collide, we will film the cars together and then them both reversing back at the same time. 
In post production editing I will the reverse the clip and it will appear they cars are about to collide. Then combined with the foley sound effects of an accident (Screeching tyres, crash sound, car horn etc).

Dialogue and script - (Sarah)

Hospital scene - Mothers voiceover

(These sections of dialogue will be played as a voiceover representing the mother character in the hospital over the close up shots of Sophies eyes and the hospital equitment)

Mother dialogue:

Flashback 1: You've been here for two whole days now, still looking as beautiful as the day you born. I'm so proud of you Sophie, I can't believe this ever happened to our little angel. We will find whatever monostrosity of a person put you in this hospital I promise, probably some vile drunk driver. I don't know how they can live with themselves. You don't deserve this, promise me you'll wake up.

Flashback 2: We've lined all your awards up here next to the bed Soph, they say you can hear us in your coma, do you remember the day you opened your exam results. Straight A*s! Do you remember how your father cried with happiness. Never forget how proud we are, never forget how much everyone needs you here. 

Flashback 3: I hope none of your friends influenced you into that car. I will go mad if they had been drinking alcohol. Luckily I know you're better than that. Infact i'm sure you even inspired them to stay in and study, I bet you were on your way home to us when this awful collision happened. 

Flashback 4: I'll make sure justice is served for you Sophie. We can not and will not let that horrendous driver get away with this. As soon as you're better, we'll go straight to the police station. I can't even think about what i'd say to the killer, he'll never drive again that's for sure.

Flashback 5: Come on wake up darling. You're our perfect daughter we need you back here. I bet you're dreaming of what a kind and thoughtful girl you are. I can't wait for you to read all the huge amount of cards everyone has written you. They're as shocked as I am that this could ever happen to you. All we need from you is to wake up, please. 

Sound design - (Sarah)

Sound Design

Initial ideas about sound –

The sound used will have mainly negative connotations, appearing quite low and sad. This is to help convey the mood and atmosphere of the situation that has just taken place. The majority of the sound will be non-diegetic, other than the dialogue and possibly the background noise of a pub.

Soundtrack - The soundtracks used will again mainly have negatives connotations to indicate to the audience something bad may be about to happen.

Foleys - I will create these Foley sound effects by recording a recreated sound that fits in with what is being shown. I will then put these over the film in post production editing.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foley_(filmmaking)

• Car door shutting
• footsteps
• Heart monitor in hospital
• car accident sounds -  skidding, car horn, crash sound
• Ambulance siren
• Background noise in the pub and in the hospital

dialogue -  Diegetic sound
Hospital scene - Mother -
http://advancedportfolio201524.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/dialogue-and-script-sarah.html

What needs to be organized and what are the likely issues in locations -

 The pub scene may be very busy and therefore the diegetic dialogue may appear faint. To solve this problem we will use microphone recorders to record the sound, wipe the sound on the film and then play the recording on the film with the other sound wiped out. This will make sure all sound is clear and precise. We can then add in the Foley of background pub noise and reduce the volume.

How to fake a car crash -(sarah)

Car crash scene

After researching how to fake a car crash I came across these two films for ideas:

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHjqsJvL4-k
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_-t77_3Y4E

The best way for us to fake this crash is putting both cars in reverse and then playing it backwards in our film so it appears as if the cars are coming towards each other at speed. We will then cut to black the audience there has been an accident.

Film title - (sarah)

Film title - ignorance
http://www.thesaurus.com/browse/ignorance


We decided this would probably be the best name for our short film as it has connotations of drink driving. Our character goes against peoples advice not to drink drive and is therefore ignorant about the situation. This acts like karma as she then kills her best friend in a car accident.

Locations(BECKY)

Locations:

Queen Victoria Hospital ( inside hospital)
First before we use this location we will have to phone the hospital asking for their permission to film on the premises. 

If we do get to use this location, we would shoot our hospital bed scenes of when are character is in a coma inside, possibly in one of the hospital beds or rooms. This location would be helpful to us it would convey the correct mise en scene, decore and setting needed to suggest our genre of film and to add the appearance of the character really being in hospital in a coma.

Hospital lights(laying down pov shot/tracking)

We would also like to use this location as a setting to screen our opening credits. We would like it to appear as through someone is laying down on a hospital bed looking up as they're being rolled down the corridors in the hospital, as hospital lights flash past the character's point of view conveying the movement of the character actually being moved.


Outside Pub

Pub location unknown.

Car Crash

Acident scene unknown

Health and safety of locations - (Sarah)

Health and safety of locations

Hospital - http://www.qvh.nhs.uk/

Obviously a hospital is a very safe environment to be in for filming as if anything did go wrong we're already in a hospital. However, we will make sure for the health and safety of the building, we are not in the way whilst filming, such as blocking busy corridors that are needed for patients.  I will also make sure we are careful with the equitment we are using as props, such as the hospital bed.

Pub - To keep under the heath and safety rules here, we will make sure the car outside is parked in a safe place for when the characters walk out from the pub to the car. We also will be only filming our characters in the pub and not anyone sitting inside as they may not want to be filmed. 





Road - We will film the accident in a private, non-busy road to make sure the risk of cars coming along not an issue.