On Tuesday the 6th of October 2015 we filmed the cafeteria scene between Charlie and Sophie.
I assigned Georgia whom had previous experience with the boom pole to record the sound.
I assigned Georgia to work the camera.
Emma meanwhile was playing the role of Sophie.
We scheduled for around 11:30 when the cafeteria was slightly busy but still reasonably quiet. This would lessen the chances of people getting into shot.
For the shot where Emma is looking down at her I Pad, I positioned a water bottle and lunch box to make it more legitimate for her presence to be at the canteen, due to people mainly going there to buy food and drink.
I showed James the story board to enable him to understand how the shots would look. To ensure the shots were met, I somtimes moved the camera into the desired positon and adjusted the lens to ensure the shot looked to how it did in the story board.
I asked Georgia during dialogue scenes to stretch the boom pole out until the microphone was a reasonable distance above the actors/actresses head or at least within close proximity to ensure a loud and good enough quality to the dialogue.
I instructed emma to look down at the I pad and tap on the screen. I asked for her to convey a rather mundane facial expression to convey a lonely personae to her character and which would hopefully contrast her to the busy and sociable cafeteria environment.
For the shot where Charlie enters asking Sophie how she is, I isntructed the actor 'Callumn' to walk casually as well as project his tone of voice slightly high to convey a freindly vibe, but at the same time one of modesty.
I physically projected a tone of voice to help Callumn obtain a better understanding for how to portray the character.
Convininetly at the same time, 'Callumn' was also holding a coffee cup, which would enhance the setting to be a cafeteria where people go to eat and drink.
For the shot where 'Charlie' sits down opposite 'Sophie' and says the line 'I was wondering if you could help me with some revision. Unless you're seeing Kane later'. I instructed Callumn to maintain a freindly tone of voice to his character, to sustain a sense of innocense and nievity to ironically emphasise Sophie being scared of Kane.
For when Charlie says 'Unless you're seeing Kane later', I asked 'Callumn' to say it in a slightly cheeky tone with his teeth showing through slightly along with eye brows narrowed and smile gesture widened to enhance a rather cheeky expression. Thus implying he knows Sophies relationship with Kane to be an intimate type.
Additionally it adds to further irony, due to us seeing in episode one, 'Kanes' abusive nature toward Sophie and making us pitiful for her character.
For when 'Charlie says' "You are seeing each other right?", I asked Callumn to slightly narrow his eye brows to convey his curiosity in wanting to confirm he was right in assuming 'Sophie' and 'Kane' are together.
For 'Sophies' nervous response, I asked Emma to widen her eye brows and express a gasped mouth gesture, to imply her immediate alarm of 'Charlie' mentioning 'Kane'. Thus hopefully conveying to audiences how much 'Sophie' is scared of 'Kane'.
For when 'Charlie' asks "What's up, cat got your tougne?", I asked Callumn to narrow his eye brows and portray a rather nieve reaction to Sophies' difficulty in answering his previous question "You two are seeing each other right?"
For the shot where 'Sophie' stands up and shouts "Shut up", I asked Emma to quickly stand up and loom over the table looking down at Callumn (I.e 'Charlie' of screen), to emphasise her sudden anger.
For 'Charlies' reaction shot, I asked Callumn to widen his eye brows and form a gasped mouth gesture to convey how suddenly of guard 'Charlie' was and to emphasise how irregular it was of 'Sophie' to behave like this. I also asked Callumn to move his back slightly to convey 'Charlie' felt slightly intimidated by 'Sophie'.
For the shot where 'Charlie' says "Sorry, what did I say", I asked him to raise his eye brows with a heightend pitch to his voice, to express a quering tone, conveying 'Charlie' to be completely unaware of what he said to anger 'Sophie'.
For the shot of 'Sophie' saying "I ha, have to go", I asked Emma to stutter on "Have", to explain she was having difficulty in answering the question and was desperate to avoid it, by leaving.
I instructed James to pan the camera slowly right for when 'Sophie' walked away from the chair. For when 'Charlie' stood up, we needed to ensure to capture only his shoulder and neck in the right hand side of the frame, being in front of 'Sophie'.
We did several re takes and asked Callumn to get into a still position of him stood up along with Emma, until we could see only Callumns neck and shoulder and Emma in front.
Eventually we obtained reasonably good takes of this shot.
For the over shoulder shot where 'Charlie' says "Are you ok Sophie?", I asked Callumn to narrow his eye brows gently down, along with a mildly gaped open mouth between speaking dialogue, to imply a concerned facial expression.
I asked for him to project his dialogue in a soft low pitch to convey his character was trying to comfort 'Sophie'.
For the shot where 'Sophie' tries to walk away but then gets nugdged back by 'Charlie', I asked Emma to slightly look up at Charlie, to convey she was regestering 'Charlie's question. However, I asked her to quickly dart her eyes immeidately to the floor as well as trying to walk away from his arms. This would imply 'Sophie' to want to avoid the question as well as emphasising how scared she must be of 'Kane', as it can imply she may get scared of 'Kane' finding out she told someone about his abusive nature.
For the over shoulder shot of "Charlie' saying 'Sophie, you can tell me", I instructed Callumn to maintain his soft and gentle voice tone, as well as express a mild smile and raise his eye brows slightly. This would convey 'Charlie' was trying to sound more freindly and welcoming this time and was understanding 'Sophies' uncertainty of wanting to tell him her problem.
For the over shoulder close up of 'Sophie' looking up at 'Charlie', I asked Emma to slowly crane her head up toward 'Charlie' (of screen) and to have her mouth gaped open slightly, to convey her character was slowly gaining the courage to tell 'Charlie' about 'Kane' but yet is still feeling quite hesitant to at the same time.
During a re shoot session, I wished to do re takes of Sophies stuttering before her sudden anger out burst. I asked for her to sway her head quickly from side to side to imply she was begining to panic and feel quite stressed, making it slightly more of a legitimate drive for her to suddenly loose control of her anger
I also did a shot of Emma craning her head down and putting her hand over her head to convey her character 'Sophie' was feeling stressed.
I also did a front view close up of her character in the same position, but this time narrowing her eye brows down. This would take place after 'Charlie' asked "Cat got your tounge".
The narrowing of her eye brows would instantly convey 'Charlie' was begining to anger 'Sophie'.
Next I did a cut in of 'Sophie' slaming her hands onto the table, to emphasise her sudden out burst of anger. I asked Emma to hit her hands against the table quite quickly and forcefully to give a slight jump scare and emphasise how much 'Charlies' constant questioning was irritating her.
Production session 2
On Wednesday the 7th of October 2015 we went to film the scene with Lauren texting her friend 'David' and her freind 'Stacey' finding out.
Unfortunatley there was only one group member available to assist in filming.
Before our actresses Megan Hues (portraying Lauren) and Rosie Blake (portraying Stacey) arrived, we made sure to book out a camera, boom pole and microphone.
We went down to the reception area had the two actresses sat on the opposite seating chairs.
For the establishing shot of the pair sat down, I wanted to convey a busy environment. Therefore, I walked across the camera and ensured my arms and mid body were only caught on camera. This helped to reinforce a busy like environment in the College.
For the shot of 'Laurens' phone beeping and with a message from a contact named 'David', I asked my group member Emma to create a false contact called David. I then gave Megans ('Lauren) number to her. With Megans permission.
I then asked Emma to write a message saying "Can't wait to finally meet you".
For the shot of 'Lauren' looking at her phone, I asked Megan to smile mildly, to convey 'David' was a person she liked ( in no specific context yet - I.e boy-freind).
Next, I asked Megan move her body slightly away from her current position into a slightly more confined one, to imply she did not want anyone to see she was texting 'David'.
For when 'Stacey' notices this, I asked Rosie ('Megan') to slightly tilt her head up and away from her phone, to imply her initial notice of 'Laurens' actions. Next, I asked 'Rosie' to narrow her eye brows more, to convey her character was now fully suspicious of 'Lauren'.
For the shot of 'Lauren' smiling at the phone, I asked Megan to perform a grinning expression, to imply her character felt slightly flattered by the message, implying her character to have a love based relationship with 'David'.
For the shot of 'Lauren' hiding the phone away, I asked Megan to look down at the phone still smiling. Next I asked her to widen her eye brows and quickly dart her face to 'Staceys' (I.e Rosie Blake) position of screen. These gestures would convey her character to be put of guard from Rosies query.
For the shot of 'Stacey' saying 'Who are you texting?", I asked Rosie to slowly stand up and arch her back downward, as though to loom over 'Lauren' (I.e Megan) of screen. This would convey her character to want to be nosy and get a look at what is on 'Laurens' phone. Most people would usually just ask. However, having her character loom over instantly conveys a nosy personae.
For when 'Lauren' says the line 'No one', I asked Megan to project a rather heightened pitch and to narrow her eye brows to convey a defensive expression and tone of voice. Thus conveying 'Lauren' does not want her friend 'Stacey' to know about the person she is messaging.
For the shot of 'Stacey' snatching 'Laurens' phone, I asked 'Rosie' to quickly snatch the phone, to convey her immediate curiosity into wanting to know who 'Lauren' was texting.
For the shot of 'Lauren' shouting "Hey!", I asked Megan to raise her eye brows and raise her pitch to convey her character was angry at her friend taking her phone.
For the shot where 'Stacey' says "Who's David?", I asked Rosie grin slightly as well as using a teasing tone of voice, to convey 'Stacey' was very curious about who 'David' was, but at the same time assumes their relationship to be loving based.
For the shot where 'Lauren' says "None of your business", I asked Megan to narrow her eye brows, shake her head slightly and to have a slightly raised pitch to convey a defensive mood. Thus implying 'Lauren' does not want her to know anything about 'David'.
For the shot where 'Stacey' says " Oh yeah, why is he hot, whats his shoe size, how did you meet?", I asked Rosie to widen her eye brows to convey an immediate curiosity.
For the shot where 'Lauren' exhibits her self getting fed up of 'Staceys' questions, I asked Megan to roll her eyes and well as making scoffing gestures with her mouth.
For when 'Lauren' snatches back her phone and walks of, I asked Megan to quickly stand up and continue rolling her eyes as well as biting her tongue slightly to emphasise how much 'Stacey' was beginning to annoy her.
For when 'Lauren' walks of, I asked Megan to quickly walk run in a rather storming of form. This would further convey her character to be annoyed and angry with 'Staceys' constant questioning. Thus emphasising how much 'Lauren' wants to keep his relationship with 'David' a secret.
After 'Lauren' walks of screen, I wanted to show 'Stacey' was still assuming 'Lauren' was in a relationship with David, despite her giving no reply.
For this, I asked Rosie to slightly narrow her eye brows and give a smirking expression to convey a slightly confident nature, as though she knows what is going on between 'Rosie' and the contact named 'David'.
Production session 3
On the same day, we were scheduled to film the scene where 'Bradley' confesses to 'Rachel' he is gay. 'Bradleys' friend listens in on the conversation and finds out.
Sometime after when Olli White ( portraying Bradley), Erin Lambert (Rachel) and Ryan (Sam) arrived for filming, we set up the equipment.
I asked my group member James to act as the boom operator, while Emma would act as the camera woman.
For the shot of 'Bradley' and 'Rachel' walking through the corridor, I asked Olli to walk rather slowly with his head craned down, implying he was trying to avoid Rachels' conversation.
For when 'Rachel' says 'So I spose I'm just like all the other girls right?", I asked Erin to nudge her head toward Ollies while saying "right" to convey she was trying to get a response from 'Bradley".
For when 'Erin' exhibited this action, I asked Ollie to put his hands over his face slightly and to sigh, conveying his character was finding it difficult and rather stress full to explain why he does not have any intimate feelings for her.
There was slight difficulty in tracking the camera backwards, as when Erin was very near to being of screen, she was still saying her line of dialogue. We could not track the camera back quickly enough to keep the pair in shot. We tried altering this problem by having Olli and Erin walk from a further distance down the corridor.
This enabled us more time to slowly and smoothly track back and for Erins' dialogue and appearance to sequentially appear in the shot together, rather than half of it occurring while she walks of screen.
However, during post production, I noticed the shot still did not look effective as Erin was still walking of screen as her last part of the line "right?" occurred. Erin did not convey an emotive enough tone to her dialogue either, in feeling upset and angry.
Next we filmed the shot of 'Sam' walking through the corridor and over hearing 'Rachel'.
I asked Ryan to slowly and causally walk to initially convey his character was completely unaware of 'Rachel' and 'Bradley's whereabouts.
For when 'Rachel' shouts "Well say something then!", I asked Erin to project it in a loud and frustrated tone, to convey she wanted 'Bradley' to explain himself. Additionally, I had Erin say her line while being in the other corridor, to give the realistic impression that 'Sam' was hearing 'Rachel' from the other corridor.
I also asked 'Ryan' to widen his eye brows to convey his character to have completely un precedented to hear 'Rachel'.
For the shot of 'Rachel' saying "Cause I thought you cared about me", I asked her to say it in a slightly upset tone, conveying how heart broken her character is of 'Bradleys' un responsive love toward her.
For the shot where 'Bradley' says 'I do, just not in that way. Look no one knows this, but I'm gay". I asked Olli to sometimes divert his eyes to the floor, to convey 'Bradleys' hesitation to admit his sexuality toward 'Rachel'.
I also asked him to have long pauses between his sentences to emphasise the great difficulty 'Bradley' had in confessing him self to be homosexual.
For the shot of 'Rachels' shocked reaction, I asked 'Erin' to raise her eye brows and form a long gasped mouth expression, to convey she was trying to register the information. Thus emphasising how unexpected it was for 'Rachel' to hear this from her friend 'Bradley'.
For the cut in of 'Rachel' putting her hand on 'Bradleys' shoulder, I asked her to slowly, but rather forcefully nudge it onto his shoulder. Typically friends apply a forceful pressure onto parts of their friends. Whereas intimate partners are mainly signified on film and T.V mediums to do it slowly conveying a passionate mood.
Therefore seeing 'Rachel' slowly but slightly forcefully putting her hand onto 'Bradleys' shoulder conveys her character to be now acting as a friend, but at the same time being quite sensitive and understanding of his sexuality.
For the shot of 'Bradley's' response, I asked for Erin to put her hand on Ollies' shoulder again, so his response could be more natural.
I asked Olli to mildly smile and nod, along with raised eye brows, to convey he still felt slightly awkward from having told Rachel about his sexuality, but was glad 'Rachel' could still understand.
For the shot of 'Rachel' smiling back at Ollie, I asked Erin to put her hand onto Ollies' shoulder (of screen) for fluidity. I asked Erin to form a smile gesture between mild and exaggerated, giving of a content gesture, as though to suggest she was happy to know 'Bradley' had told her the truth.
For the shot of 'Sams' reaction to 'Bradely' confessing himself to be homosexual. I asked 'Ryan' to quickly edge away from the door, to emphasise the level of shock this new brung to him. To further enhance his shock, I asked him to raise his eye brow and grit his teeth slightly, to implicate a slight sense of disgust at the news of 'Bradley' being homosexual.
I also asked Ryan to divert his eyes toward the floor at times to emphasise the news to be a big shock to him.
On Thursday the 15th of October 2015, I did a reshoot of Erin walking through the corridor and saying her line.
I did a tracking diagonal mid shot, which proved effective in capturing her facial expressions more effectively, as well as a more tense mood to the scene.
On Friday the 16th of October 2015, I did a re shoot of Olli walking through the corridor and responding to Erins' dialogue.
For this shot, I instructed Olli to put his hands over his cheeks to convey his character was finding it difficult and rather stressful to explain to 'Rachel' why he lacked intimate feelings towards her.
Production session 4
On Friday the 9th of October 2015, our group got our equipment and story board ready to film the common room scene, where Tom confronts Aleysha with his knowledge of her relationship with the tutor 'Collin'.
I asked one of the extras, whom kindly accepted to take part, to also take pictures of us setting up and filming.
Once our Actor, Jake Galley ( portraying Tom) and actress Kirsty Pickett (portraying Aleysha) arrived, we went to the common room.
During pre production, one of our group members from year 2 booked the common room for filming, by making an enquiry email to member of staff 'Hannah Jones'.
Before setting up, we quickly went up stairs to the office to verify the filming time.
Unfortunately though it was apparently scheduled for half and hour later.
However, this gave us time to set everything up.
I asked Georgia to act as the boom operator, James as the camera man and Emma to swap camera roles sometime after each had an equal number of turns.
However, I perhaps should have allocated another job for Emma, such as instructing the actor and actress on how to perform their lines, or looking at the storyboard and assisting James on getting the frame right.
For the long shot of 'Aleysha' approaching 'Tom', I asked Jake to place his arm on the seating table, as well as to crane his head downward slightly, to convey he was feeling a little bit tense about telling 'Aleysha' what he has found out.
Additionally, it may also hopefully emphasise how big and scary the discovered new is.
I asked 'Kirsty' to walk in a quick paced marching manner, to convey her character was feeling rather impatient and annoyed.
For the shot of 'Aleysha' saying " What is it? I'm busy", I asked Kirsty to say it in a rather impatient and slightly annoyed tone, to convey she wanted 'Tom' to say whatever it was he wanted, to be quick.
For the shot of 'Tom' saying "I'm really worried about you and Collin", I asked Jake to raise his eye brows and look straight at Aleysha, to convey his awareness of how serious the situation was, as well as his concern.
For the shot of 'Aleysha' saying "How do you know about that?", I asked Kirsty to raise her eye brows form a gaped mouth expression to convey a shocked expression.
For the shot of 'Tom' saying "I read his emails". I asked 'Jake' to slightly tilt his head down, sigh briefly and divert his eyes downward. This would imply 'Tom' to be feeling slightly awkward about telling 'Aleysha' he has been looking into his emails.
I asked Jake to project his voice at a slow pace and rather low tone to further emphasise an awkward and reluctant tone to his voice.
For the shot of 'Aleysha' saying 'Thats private, have you been stalking me to?", I asked Kirsty to project her voice into a loud and slightly deep tone, to emphasise her anger. Additionally, I asked her to raise her eye brows and make slight scoffing gestures, to convey her dis belief and slight disgust at how James has been invading into her private life.
For the shot of 'Tom' saying "This relationship is unhealthy", I asked Jake to move his hands and arms outward before him, conveying he was trying to drastically emphasise how poor her relationship with Collin was.
Additionally, I asked him to raise his pitch of voice and to louden it especially for when 'Tom' says the word "Unhealthy" to bear significance to his extreme disapproval of 'Aleyshas' relationship with 'Collin.'
For the shot of 'Aleysha' saying "Just leave me alone Tom!", I asked Kirsty to raise her tone of voice to a heightened pitch to convey, she was now becoming more annoyed with 'Tom'. I also asked Kirsty to move her arms upward and to tilt her head frantically from side to side to emphasise her annoyance and stress with 'Tom'.
For the shot of 'Tom' saying "Fine if you don't end this I'm gonna tell someone", I asked Jake to raise his tone more deeply and loud, to convey he was now more serious and annoyed with 'Aleysha' not listening to him.
For the shot of Aleysha putting her hands over her mouth, I asked her put her hand over her mouth and turn away from the screen to convey how much distress she was in.