Editing reflection

On the 21st February I finished filming for my teaser trailer. During that stage I started to begin editing my movie so I can perfect the final product. During the past month of editing, I have had a few obstacles to deal with which has affected the amount of time I complete the editing in. The main areas I focused on perfecting was the duration of the teaser trailer, the sound, and how it is presented in the final cut to avoid shots lagging, or the volume being too low or too high.

Sound:

I managed to adjust the sound of the music very well during the post production stages of the trailer. I looked for some suitable music and decided which one fits the best with my school theme. When I found a suitable track for my trailer, I inserted in the trailer to overlap with the footage I got during filming. However, there were some challenges to this specific task. For starters, I had to make sure that the music was not too loud to the point it overlapped with the characters speaking in the trailer. Also with the title writing scenes on the whiteboard, me and the cameraman would sometimes talk to one and another while filming those specific scenes, and if there was talking shown in the trailer, it would make the film seem less professional and more home made. So in this scenario, I decided to mute the audio from those clips so it does not overlap with the music. Overall, I think the sound went on very well and it was not so loud to the point that it overlapped with the dialogue between characters.

Putting the scenes together:

There was no challenge when I had to piece the scenes together. This was a very easy task to do because I was very happy with all the footage that was in my movie. There were times when I had to cut some scenes out because I had to re do the takes when a cast member said a line incorrectly, or did an action incorrectly. If there was an area I had to improve on for putting the scenes together, is probably cropping some scenes down to make the feature trailer shorter. There were times when the teaser trailer would drag on a bit and it did last a bit longer than originally expected. If I was going to do this again, I will try and tirm down the clips in the future.

Magazine front cover

Provisional Ideas/Sketches

This is a sketch of an original scene planned when Mr Garrett was teaching a very disruptive class. This scene was not included because it was difficult to find a number of student actors who could all work at the same time. 

This is another sketch of Mr Garrett being interviewed by the film crew. 

Analysis of Focus group 2 responses

Like the first focus group, I picked my focus group to answer a set of questions related to the mockumentary genre. All my respondents were young males aged 16 to 17. Three of the respondents were fans of the mockumentary genre, and I selected them based on their knowledge of this genre. They all had in common a belief that mockumentaries were successful because they parody real life situations, while often still carrying a serious political message. While their was only one respondent who said they did not know what mockumentaries are. Two of the respondents I asked were boys, and the other two were girls. This is where I decided to improve on my previous focus group. 

Then when they were asked about which type of people on the political spectrum like mockumentaries, two said a mix of everyone from both sides of the political spectrum like mockumentaries with the exception of two candidates. One of those candidates said that left wing people prefer the mockumentary genre, and the other one said right wing people would prefer it over left wing, which was my original prediction before carrying out this task.

Now for the final question, Iasked if there would be any problems with filming a mockumentary in a school. This was the most practical question that I included to help me make decisions regarding my teaser trailer. One out of the four answers said that some problems could arise when a mockumentary is filmed in a school environment. The reasons why people have said that is because you might need to make fun of stereotypes like the studious nerd, to the intellectually challenged bully, in order to make the humor work. Some people might get offended by this. Also, someone said that schools are a place where sensitive issues should not be mocked because of the way this can affect students' well-being.  However, overall the respondents thought that people will enjoy the film and that the school setting would work well in terms of playing-off stereotypes.

Poster

Focus group 2 responses

1. What makes mockumentaries so successful as comedies?
Marta- They manage to parody real life situations that every day people can relate to.
Callum- I don't know what a mockumentary is.
Caxie- Laughing at real life situations in a nice way.
Billy- People can normally relate and enjoy the irony of the situations.

2. Do you think mockumentaries are suited to a left wing or a right wing audience, or does it not matter?
Marta- Left wing.
Callum- It does matter.
Caxie- Right wing audience
Billy- Doesn't matter.

3. Do you think there will be any difficulities about making a mockumentary set in a school?
Marta- Yes because they can be offensive and it depends on the topic.
Callum- No
Caxie- No because everyone has went to school and have laughed at school before.
Billy- I do not think there will be any difficulities.

Filming reflection

After I finished the script for the teaser trailer of the Mockumentary. On December the 1st, I decided to go location scouting and look for suitable areas where I can shoot my movie. It varied from classrooms and hallways, to going offsite and shooting there. After completing location scouting, and deciding on the most suitable locations to proceed to film. The main locations I decided to pick for the trailer was a school playground, a small classroom, and a small fenced area that's in the school but I made it look like it was shot outside of the school.

The titles:

On December 16th, production started. The first scenes I decided to complete were the title scenes that were displayed in between the teaser. Three days after, I shot the first live action scene involving an actor. Originally, for the titles I put the titles in stop motion animation, by taking a series of pictures and combining them into one whole video.

I decided to do stop motion animation for this scene because I did not have a cameraman to film me writing down the titles on the whiteboard, and it would have not looked good because its suppose to be titles being shown on the screen, and I wanted the titles to be viewable and have a smooth frame rate. I also proceeded to do stop motion animation instead of writing titles on the computer is because I wanted to do something different and have some originality to it.

Sadly, this approach was not successful because the lighting ruined the shot on occasions, and I would have to use different white boarder marker pens to write down the title if they runned out of ink, and this could affect the continuity of the shot. Then on the 9th February, I decided to re shoot the title writing scenes but instead of a big whiteboard, I decided to use a smaller whiteboard.

I filmed a hand writing the titles on the mini whiteboard instead of using stop motion animation. This saved time, ink and did not affect the continuity between takes. Overall I was happy with the final product for the titles.

The expelled student scene:

Then, when I came back from my Christmas break, I decided to continue shooting the teaser trailer. On 10th January I worked on shooting the first scene involving a student, but the difference was that this student was suppose to be kicked out of Ashburn and the original plan was to film outside.

The reason why I decided against filming outside the school, was because the filming could be disturbed because cars pass by, which could make the film seem less professional and make the characters dialogue unclear for the viewers. Overall, I was impressed with this scene, but if I were to reshoot a scene like this in the future, I would probably have gone somewhere else that looks a bit more remote, and looks like it's in a different area, not in a school because that did make the scene a bit unbelievable because he's suppose to be a student that was expelled from the frictional college, and to have the scene of him being shot in the school does make it less believable to the viewer that he is an expelled student.

The interview scene:

A day before the Christmas break started, I decided to film the first live action scene involving an actor. This was a scene where a teacher was being interviewed by the crew making the mockumentary. I was impressed with the first actors performance as the protagonist of the movie. Unfortunately, due to scheduling conflicts with the teacher, I had to find a new actor to portray the protagonist in the interview scenes. On the 12th January I found another actor and reshot the interview scenes. This time I had a different approach to the interview scenes than the first time around. The first time around, I had the crew speaking in the scene, asking the teacher questions and then the teacher will proceed to answer the question. But this time around, I had titles written on the screen of the question, then the teacher proceeded to answer it. I preferred the second approach because again it seemed more professional, and did have that relevance to a trailer more than me asking the questions.

The Playground scene:

This is the final scene I filmed for my teaser trailer before I wrapped production. This scene was originally suppose to be shot in the classroom, and this would have the teacher teaching the fellow students, and failing to control the class. The reason why I could not do this scene was because of a combination of reasons.

Firstly, not many students were available and their was a lot of scheduling conflicts between me and the actors I was hiring for the classroom scene. Secondly, since I am shooting the teaser in my college, there were problems with looking for an available classroom to shoot the scene in because they would be occupied by another class.

For an alternative choice, I decided to pick three school students in uniform to film with the teacher in the school playground. In this scene, like the original classroom scene planned, we are showing the teacher failing to have control of all the students. However, instead of the students being all together in one take, I split the students up.

Two younger students were put together and I filmed them having a fake fight with one and another, and we would see the teacher try to control the students, but the students would just blank the teacher's instructions, which does display how he is not respected by the students like shown in the scene when the expelled student refers to the teacher as a "posh boy snob who always begs it to the kids", and another student during the interview scene shouting out "your shit!"

While the older student in the playground shot, would interrupt Mr Garrett (the teachers name) when he's talking about the playground, and the older student interrupts him telling him that he forgot to do his homework, and how he wants the teacher to overlook it, in exchange for some money. This also displays how the students do not take the protagonist seriously, and even some take advantage of how he's so desperate to being respected by the students.

Treatment/Outline

My film is title Ashburn College: A life. It's a British comedy set in a documentary style parody which means that the film is a mockumentary. The story follows the regular school life of teachers who work at Ashburn college, and students who attend Ashburn college for their education. Throughout the movie, we show the numerous interactions that the teachers and students have with one and another, and we represent sterotypes in a school, and parody them in a nice way.

The main protagonist of the movie is Mr Garrett otherwise known as "OG". He is an English teacher from a middle-upper class background, who pretends he is down with the kids and has a working class background to make him look more "cool" or "respected" in front of all the students. He is also not respected by other teachers because its been rumored that he has taken bribes before from students and does not have any control of the class.

Throughout the film, the primary story-line is Mr Garrett's struggle as a teacher and how he is looked down by everyone in the school, and is only still there because his mother is the governor of the school. Their are other mini sub plots to the film, like the students struggling with the education but they are not explored as much as Mr Garrett's story.

The film is targeted for teenage audiences and young teachers because in secondary school, around 60% of the students are teenagers, and a lot of teachers who both teach students, or who are teaching assistants. Another group of people this film is aimed at is people on the left wing side of the political spectrum. The reason being for this is because what also is shown in the movie is people who are considered more liberal are laughing at others on the right wing side of the political spectrum.

Moodboard

Permission Forms

ACTORS CONTRACT

Name of actor                                                   Name of production company

C/o Agent (if there is one)                                              Company address

Actor or Agent’s Address

Date 22/01/2017

Dear Name of actor

This letter confirms agreement that you will take the part of  an actor in the film Ashburn College: A Life ( the “Film”) This is the working title and the final name of the film may change. As you know, this is a low budget production and we are keen to ensure that everyone understands the basis upon which the Film is being made. If there is anything about this letter that you do not understand or you wish us to clarify, please do not hesitate to contact us.

1) You agree to be available to work during the filming period (“the Shoot”)

from 16/12/2016 to  22/01/2017   (or you can name the exact dates).   

2) You agree that the filming will take place in the following locations

Ernest Bevin College

3) You agree to give over any rights you may have in the finished film to Cheeky Creations production.  This will allow us to distribute the film in any and every way we can.

4) We will aim to ensure that working days are not longer than 10 hours.

5) We will do our best to ensure your health, safety and welfare during the Shoot.

6) We will have public liability insurance to cover you during the Shoot.

7) We will provide you with food and refreshments throughout the Shoot.  We will liase with you over your travel arrangements to and from the Shoot and either provide transport or pay travel expenses which we need to agree in advance.

8) We will be provide you with a VHS of the finished Film within 3 months of the completion of all post production.

signed by the actor                                                        signed on behalf of the company

date                                                                              date

Risk Assessment

Risk	People in Risk	Risk Rating	How to prevent the risk
Going offsite to film some scenes. Could potentially get run off by cars if they get hit.	Actor and cameramen	3	Make sure to stay on the pavement when we are filming.
There is a scene when students have a small fight with one and another, there’s a risk that the young students might get carried away and end up seriously hurting each other.	Actors.	4	Make sure that I have full control of the actors, and see they stay calm and stop the fight if they get carried away.
We are shooting a few scenes outside, if the weather is bad, people could be prone to get ill with a cold, or if the weather is in cold conditions, actors could be at risk of getting hypothermia.	Actors and crewman	3	Make sure actors and the crewmen are wearing warm clothing to avoid them from being cold or getting ill.

Filming diary

15/12/2016:

Our original idea for our title scene was to have a full size classroom whiteboard which where we would write the titles and combine them with stop-motion animation. As you can see from this image, there were several problems with this method, the main one was the glare on the whiteboard. 

16/12/2016:

I did more taking pictures of the titles for the teaser trailer. This time I decided to do a "Meet the class" title which was supposed to be used for a classroom scene, but it was sadly cut out because not many students were available to come and help with the classroom. For this scene I decided to do bubble writing and shade in the letters instead because I thought it made the title stand out more. Their were some filming problems to this because the ink on the whiteboard pen would sometimes run out and that would mean I would need to get a new pen to use. Also, there were times I had to start writing the title again because if I would ruin out of ink from a current pen, I would have to get a different colour pen due to continuity.

19/12/2016:

I filmed the interview scene for the first time. The only difference to this interview scene was the actor was different, and instead of the questions appearing on the titles, the interviewer was speaking out loud, asking the questions to the protagonist. Filming went on well that day but the previous actors availability was not the best so I had to re cast him with a different guy.

10/01/2017:

I started to film my teaser trailer after coming back from the Christmas break. I decided to film scenes with a current 6th former and he portrayed an expelled student from the frictional college. Overall filming went well that day, and the takes were spot on and I did not need to do multiple takes for the actor.

12/01/2017:

I decided to re film the interview scene since I recast the actor who plays the teacher, the reason I resorted to this is because I did not want to have problems with continuity because it would not make sense if I was interviewing two teachers with the same name, and a majority of students are not available to come and be actors. I also shot a short scene of the teacher interacting with one student that day as well.

09/02/2017:

For today's filming, I decided to re-shoot the title writing scenes because their was problems with continuity, and the amount of ink I had to use for filming. Instead, I used a smaller whiteboard so I could have smaller hand-writing without worrying about running out of ink, and so we could have better lighting for the scene.

21/02/2017:

The final day of filming, this was a newly invented scene because the original scene was suppose to be the teacher in the classroom but not many students are available to film so I had to get a smaller amount of students to film one scene.  We shot a scene in the playground of Mr Gordon not having control of the students in the playground, and him taking bribes from students.

Talent scouting

I used the total of six actors for the teaser trailer. All of them were males, and their was one staff member, three students in uniform, and two sixth formers in own clothes, including myself. This blog is a detailed look at all the actors I used.

This is Thomas, he plays a student trying to make an exchange with the teacher but appears very briefly in one scene during the teaser trailer. In the the film, he plays the deuteragonist who interrupts the protagonist so that he gets caught on camera taking a bribe. 

This is my teacher who I hired for the teaser trailer. He plays a teacher who has a middle class background who pretends to the kids he's caught up with the modern generation, and is the main protagonist of the film. I think he was success in playing the culturally ignorant teacher, and there were some scenes where he stole the show when he displayed how desperate he was to get the students' respect, especially when he got bribed to turn a blind eye on a student forgetting to hand in his homework.

Jordan Murcer is one of the two sixth formers that starred in my media production.. He plays a former student at the frictional college, Ashburn college. He appears for one whole scene, and we see him be interviewed by the film crew. I think Jordan did an amazing job on playing the expelled student. He managed to do talk informally, and give out an accurate description of the teacher he punched.

This is a still of me playing one of the current students at the frictional college, Ashburn college. I appear very briefly in the teaser trailer only saying one line. The line that I say is "Do you like my crepes sir?" This scene in the trailer is suppose to be taking the mick out of the teachers middle class, posh up-bringing.  I played the character well because in the shot, I managed to keep eye contact with my teacher, did not look at the camera once, and managed to stay in character instead of laughing, and changing my tone in the shot.

This is another still in the teaser trailer of  two students who briefly have a disagreement with one another to show how poorly the teacher Mr Garrett can control his students.  These actors did not find it difficult to play the part because it was similar to their real life counterparts. 

Web research for costumes, props, and location.

I had to do research on what props and costumes are needed for the movie in production:

Location:

All of the film is shot at Ernest Bevin College. Since the overall plot of the film is a mockumentary set in a school, all the scenes are mainly shot here because we wanted to create the feel of a documentary, with some elements of comedy in it. If I had shot outside the school this would have made the film less realistic. The furthest the camera crew went from the school was the front entrance. The scene the expelled student played by Jordan Murcer, was shot inside the school but we wanted to make it look like it was outside the school. The reason for this was practical because we did not want noise pollution with cars.

Props:

Quite a few props have been used for this movie. These props have usually had something to do with school. For example, during the title scenes, we used a whiteboard, and a marker pen because we wanted it to fit in with the theme of the school. Initially, we used a large classroom whiteboard, however, there were problems with the glare coming from the lighting. For this reason, we decided to use a small whiteboard because it made the writing faster, and there was less glare.

Costumes:

Since this film is set in a school, the staff actors and sixth former's did not need to wear costumes. To add realism, we wanted the pupil actors to be wearing their actual uniforms, and the staff actors to be in their ordinary clothes.