R+P Post 20: Reflections so far/ looking ahead

Looking at our test edit it is clear we need to make a few significant changes before we move ahead. That being said I think that most of our shots work quite well and will definitely be carried on to our main shoot,

Having a test shoot and edit has prepared us for our main shoot extremely well so we know exactly what to do when we get to location etc. Not only has the test shoot helped us on the technical side of the shooting process it will also make us more efficient in the future shoots.

I think our research went really well. We were heavily inspired by the TV series Mr.Robot. We looked over the show as a group and were just moved by it. We however made many significant changes to ensure it was far from a carbon copy of the show. It think our planning went well as we managed to plan our test shoot quite well and made many documents to aid organisation such as the shoot-board. However for our main shoot we have made a more efficient shot list as we are extremely familiar with the shots.

Overall it has been a fun process to actually produce a version of our sequence and I'm excited to get on with the real thing.

R+P Post 19: Our rough cut

After our test shoot we edited the footage in order to make a rough cut. The rough cut proved to be a useful tool in our project as it allowed us to see what we could improve on both in planning as well as in terms of actual specific shots. It also allowed us to see what went well within the sequence.

To start off we felt as if the very opening of our sequence was quite awkward and slow. The duration of each shot was too prolonged and thus did not create the fast paced montage we initially aimed for. Our music also didn't seem to work with the montage as well and new music needs to be found. We also made some continuity errors within the montage. For example the character drags the mouse to the left however the cursor moves the the left. This is one of the easier mistakes to fix within the sequence.

After showing the sequence to our teachers we also realised that when we jumped scenes from the bedroom to the train it was unclear that the character was the same person. This made the sequence confusing to the audience. In order to fix this we thought of establishing shots in order to make it crystal clear it is the same person.

Another obvious shot we need to change was the CCTV shot. The actual shooting of the shot seemed fine however in construction the change from shot to shot wasn't as smooth as we anticipated. The shots that immediately followed however worked quite well and created a tense atmosphere as expected.

   

R+P Post 18: Our test shoot

A test shoot was essential for our project as we had to see if the shots we had visualised would actually be practical to do in real life. Fortunately many of our shots actually worked as we had hoped and were reshot exactly the same for our real sequence. For example our typing scene.

Typing scene in test shoot

Typing scene in final edit

Running scene in test shoot

Running scene in final edit

However some shots proved to be too difficult and complicated to perform. For example we originally planned to have a conflict scene that would end with a character being flipped. However this proved too difficult to capture on camera. We attempted it many times and ended with a cringey unrealistic shot that looked nothing like we anticipated. Despite the shot being a complete failure we had a lot of time to adapt our sequence in order to give a more realistic look.

Our failed conflict scene

Our test shoot was a valuable learning experience and it allowed us to see what actually worked in our sequence and what didn't. It took place a full week before our main shoot, thus we had enough time to fix our mistakes and think of shots that didn't work.

R+P Post 17: Our planned costumes, hair and make-up

For our main characters costume we took inspiration from Mr.Robot. We liked his look as it was quite casual and centred around dark colours, primarily black. This connoted that our character wanted to stay low and seem unnoticed. To create this look we used a black hoodie, a pair of black skinny jeans and black trainers. This theme of black clothing from head to toe worked well. The hood was put up for some scenes which added to this theme of him trying to go unnoticed.

Mr.Robot in a predominantly black outfit

Mr.Robot in a black hoodie

Our character in his outfit

For the criminal organisation characters we wanted them to have uniforms. The organisation was split into two segments in our sequence. The group that was following our main character and the group that was tracking our main character from the HQ. For the group back at HQ we took inspiration from Men in Black. We wanted a professional, slick and efficient vibe. In order to do this we dressed the actors in suits. This coupled well with the setting giving off a really good look.

Men in black outfit

For the group that was following our main character we needed a more casual look but still wanted a "uniform" among the actors. In order to do this we dressed them in white t shirts and black jeans. Having all of the actors in the same clothing helped the audience immediately realise they are part of the same group. Having this as the costume was also extremely convenient as it was a costume that all of the actors already possessed.

Group that was following in costume

R+P Post 16: Casting

In our sequence we had many characters with a relatively big total of 7. This meant having 8 actors. Although this seemed like a lot it was essential that we had this many in order to make our "conspiracy organisation" seem big enough to actually pass off as one. Our actors are a follows...

1. David Sagna- The main character and our hacker.
2. Danya Bavetta- Our main member of the conspiracy organisation 
3. Elliot Roberts- Member of conspiracy organisation 
4. Christian- Member of conspiracy organisation 
5. Matt Davies- Member of conspiracy organisation at HQ
6. Jerom Thambipillai- Member of conspiracy organisation at HQ
7. Matt Rogers- Hackers friend

David is a good friend of Alex. He was cast as the main character as he is extremely reliable as well as flexible. Reliability was extremely important in the casting process as if the actor pulled out before or during the filming process this would out our project at risk. Flexibility is also really helpful as we often needed to reshoot certain scenes, this meant that we would need the actors quickly and at short notice.

David Sagna in charchter

Danya Bavetta, Elliot Roberts,Christian and Matt Rogers are friends of Matt Davies. They were cast as they were reliable as well as we felt they added diversity to the conspiracy group but still managed to sustain the intimidating image we were going for. Danya was cast as the main member of the conspiracy organisation as he had extensive previous acting experience. His acting skills were easily the strongest out of all of our actors. He nailed the role and looked really intimidating on camera.

Danya Bavetta

Elliot and Christian

Me and Matt Davies were cast as the members of the conspiracy organisation at HQ as we attend the school. This was essential as we filmed theHQ scenes in the steward studio in school. Since we go to the school it meant we were always at hand to film when the studio was free. Gathering external actors to come to our school could've proved troublesome.

Me and Matt Davies in character

R+P Post 15: Our planned filming location, set design and props

Our planned filming locations were...

1. Alex's house
2. Arnos Grove Train Station
3. Southgate Train Station
4. Oakwood Train Station
5. Arnos Grove Park
6. The Steward Studio- In the Latymer School

Although having this many locations was difficult it was essential that we kept the story going which involved changing locations. 

We chose Alex' room in order to film the hacking scenes as we wanted the hacker to be doing his work from his bedroom alone. Alex's room had access to a laptop as well as enough space to light the scene thus it proved perfect to shoot in. We decided our set design for Alex' room would be quite plain and bland. Having posters, toys and clothes around the room would make our character seem like an ordinary teenager. We did not want that, instead we went for a more professional sleek approach with just a table, laptop and wardrobe in the room.

 We chose the train stations as it screams the London setting and thus connotes to our audience really well that our sequence is based in London. Also we felt that having some of our sequence in our train station would add to the dark/tense vibes we were going for. Train stations also heavily indicated that our character was travelling somewhere which was essential to our plot. Arnos grove train station was also easily accessible to the whole group as well as in close proximity to both Alex' house as well as Arnos Grove Park. This made the whole shooting process easier especially in the early morning. Set design for the train station was not really an option as all train stations have a universal theme. This was good as it allowed our set to become instantly recognisable to the audience.

Arnos grove park was another location. It was easily accessible and only a few minutes walk away from our previous locations, Alex' house and Arnos Grove station. This park was also a nice setting to shoot in especially in the arches. The arches allowed us to have an aesthetic to our sequence that wasnt present anywhere else. Also since we were outside filming in London the arches provided shelter if it rained. This was a big deal as we were carrying around very expensive equipment. Set design for the park was fixed as we couldn't really change the park. However we chose to stay in the area where the arches where as they gave a really nice look with the camera. We were able to film a few "arty" shots with arches which was amazing.

Our last location was the Seward Studio located in our school. The back of the steward studio has a lot of sound equipment and screens which allowed us to use it as our "conspiracy organisation base" It allowed us to imitate a high tech vibe perfectly. Lighting was also good here as we could play around with the blinds and use whatever lighting we wanted be it artificial or natural. For set design We closed all the blinds and used artificial lighting to really create a dark atmosphere. 

Seward studio set

In terms of props we didn't really need anything other than the actors and outfits. The only two props we needed were two toy pistols and two phones. The phones were easy to obtain as we just used the actors own ones. This helped establish connections between the characters when needed. The pistols were given to use by the media department. We had to be especially careful when using these in order not to spark any confusion or hysteria with the public.

R+P Post 14: Our Call Sheet/Shot List

For our main shoot we decided that a full on shoot board was unnecessary. Instead a call sheet was developed.

Our Call Sheet

The call sheet was essentially a list of everyone who was involved in the production. They're numbers and what times they needed to be called were also included. This helped us make the shoot efficient by telling the actors what exact time we needed them on set. This avoided any misunderstandings and thus everyone. 

Shot List

We followed this call sheet with a shot list. This was a less cluttered version of the storyboard. We no longer needed pictures of each shot as at this point we all had become extremely familiar with each shot. It included rough timing to give us a guide if we were on track as well as a prop list, which was essential as without the props our scene would fall apart. 

R+P Post 13: Our Shoot-Board

For our shoot we had to make our shoot board. Our shoot board was key to the organisation of the shoot. Our shoot had all the shots in order, the shots were then sorted into locations. This meant for each location we could easily see all the shots we needed to shoot at a glance. It also acted as a tick list to make sure that we filmed each shot.

A shot image was made from a quick sketch using a post it note. This helped us remember the shots we had thought of. It also helped us remember the framing which is essential to every shot. We also had a "Actors/Props" section which made sure we knew exactly what we needed for each shot before the camera even began rolling. This was extremely useful as it made the whole shooting process much more efficient as we could plan the shoot day and call the actors accordingly. We had also planned the Director and Camera-man for each shot in advance, this increased the efficiency of the shoot drastically. Without this we would have to think of who would direct and shoot each shot as it was happening. It potentially saved us hours of valuable time.

A typing shot from our Shootboard

The same typing shot in our final sequence

The shot timings column also helped us see if we were either behind schedule or ahead. During the shoot I learnt that each shot consumes a lot of time despite how long the duration of the shot is. for example a shot that lasts only a few seconds could take up to half an hour due to retakes, setting up and other unforeseen problems. In the future I would overestimate how long a shot will take rather than underestimate.

An extract from our Shootboard

The final two sections were the "Takes" section and "Identify good takes" section. This allowed us to see how many takes we took of each shot and which out of those takes were the best ones. This was extremely useful later in editing as we didn't have to look through every take to find the desired one.

Overall the shoot board was a useful tool in the shooting process. It helped us heavily in terms of organisation and efficiency. However by the time of our main shoot we were very familiar with each shot. Due to this we instead made a shot list. This was essentially a list of shots that we could cross off as we shot them. This was much quicker than the shoot board and was easier to produce short notice as we had made some changes to our sequence after the Test shoot. 

R+P Post 12: Our Animatic

After making our storyboard we swiftly moved on to make our animatic. Our animatic consisted of real photographs of the shots we had previously planned in our storyboard. The animatic allowed us to create the desired atmosphere for the very first time. The right atmosphere was essential to our film opening as it not only connoted the genre well but it was what made our opening unique. By adding sound effects and music we managed to partially create the atmosphere we were looking for however we felt the music didn't fit as well as we hoped.

The animatic was an extremely  useful tool in pre-production as it was the first time we saw our idea in video form. Overlaying the music and sound effects over the pictures gave us a rough idea of what our sequence would look like. We were glad to see that the sound effects worked well for example the non-digetic sound of typing created a tense atmosphere. however some aspects of the animatic weren't as successful. Some parts of the music simply did not work with the pictures. The lengths of some shots were over-estimated and created an awkward atmosphere. We were able to fix this instantly by simply shortening the shot. However in doing this our sequence fell short and did not fit the time frame. This had to be fixed by making other shots longer.

Our animatic

R+P Post 11: Our Storyboard + Timeline

To kick off pre-production we first needed to put our main idea into chronological order as well as to see if our idea would fit into the 2-minute time limit we were given. In order to do this we drafted a time-line. This would help us organise our idea and make storyboarding much easier as we could clearly see the sequence of events that would take place. Putting our idea into an order was crucial as it prompted us to finalise ideas and make decisions quickly.

A section from our timeline 

In order to make our time time line we used three A3 sheets of paper attached in order to form a large strip of paper. This gave us enough space to put all the events onto the timeline. Overall the time-line was an extremely useful tool as it helped put our ideas onto paper for the first time. This allowed us to see what would work and what wouldn't within the sequence. For example some ideas when explained verbally sounded good however once put on the time-line we could immediately see it wouldn't work on film.


After our timeline was finished and finalised we progressed to make our storyboard. A storyboard allowed us to plan each individual shot in great detail. In this stage we decided our framing, duration and overall look for each shot. This was extremely useful as it yet again helped us better imagine what our ideas would look like on camera.

Our story board 

Our storyboard was made out of sticky notes, to represent shots, and a large piece of bright pink sugar paper. The key for our storyboard was as follows

• Yellow sticky note- Close up shot
• Green Sticky note-Medium shot
• Blue sticky note- Long shot

Using a colour code to signify each shot type we were easily able to imagine the variety shots. The storyboard was really useful as it helped us visualise our shots accurately. Using the storyboard we were immediately able to assess what ideas would work and what didn't. This helped us finalise our idea as a whole before our test shoot. We used many close-ups and medium shots in our storyboard as it helped us connote the action-thriller genre quite well, placing the audience very close to the action. We drew inspiration from the Mr.Robot series trailer as it created the very atmosphere we wanted to replicate.