IN THE END
now that it is all finished there are a few things I may do differently..

- I'd do it alone. It was good to have more people for gear and things, but it was hard to organize them to be there all the time and by the time we got to editing I was doing it by myself anyway.
-I'd leave myself more time. I underestimated how long EVERYTHING took. So if I did it again I'd have more time for filming and editing.
That's it really - otherwise it was so much fun. I am absolutely going to take film next year and see what I can do with a doco. Thanks Anya :)

i did the audio without the rest of my team ( Paloma and Ruby helped me though). I took out the parts where you could hear us instructing George through and the random out-of-place noises. I didn't really know what I was doing to start with so it was good to have Paloma to show me what to do - but in the end I could show her some stuff :) I looked for music that would fit the movie but I couldn't find any, then I was talking to terry about using Reason and I thought I might try and make my own kind of soundtrack. So I spent a couple of days (after school and at lunch times) cutting and stretching and reversing and speeding up and layering tracks from Reason and made me a soundtrack I was happy with. The I added in the credits and it was done! I am surprised really. I thought it wouldn't look nearly as good as it does now. I'm pretty proud of it. It does stray a bit from the original plot, but the idea is still there. Sharne and George watched it today, they last saw it before I started the sound and the music, and they couldn't believe it. That was fun :)

22 july

after the holidays we had some serious editing to do if we were going to meet our deadline. Now that all the footage was mostly put in place we went about changing the colour to correct the lighting. We played around with several video filters and decided on one that would tone down the colour. It made the lighting more sinister and also more constant. We only used this in the first half of the film, because that way the only strong colour in the entire film is the bright red blood in the dead body scene.

4-19 july

HOLIDAYS

(no work got done, everyone was away)

1 july

we captured all our footage and began to arrange and edit it. When we had a rough draft we realised that there was a huge gap in our plot. One moment it is dusk and George is disappearing over a hill, the next it is pitch black and he is running down a street carrying a mysterious torch. We have to add another scene! So that day we spent another day after school filming a scene in a garage to link the two parts. The garage is at Sharne's house but again we don't think the audience will realise. It was very cramped in the garage and difficult to fit three people and a tripod but it all worked out fine. We edited the new scene in and the rough draft was done!

27 june

we decided that the final scene would have to be shot all in one night due to lack of time and lighting. So we grabbed all our gear and Paloma and rushed over to Sharne's house after school. We started to set up and soon realised we had a big problem. The camera was flat and the park was far far away from any power plugs. We had an emergency setting change and decided to film our last scene down the road under a streetlamp. So we pulled out the millions of extension cords that Sharne's Grandfather by some miracle had in his garage. It turned out that filming under the street lamp was actually good for our film, as it allowed for rather lovely lighting. The dim light from above combined with the torch made the bright red of the blood really stand out in the otherwise monotone scene. It cast some sinister shadows, it was like although the circle of light may look like a safe place it is in fact the most dangerous place for our character, a contridiction.

We concocted blood from eggs and other gross stuff and got to work. All went relatively well (apart from Sharne stabbing both George and me) until we came to our last shot with the last of our toilet paper. George had to stand in the middle of the road and at the EXACT moment that he ripped the last bit of paper from his face a car drove straight into the shot. So we had to go around and borrow more toilet paper. We got it right in our second take, thank god. We packed up and watched the footage and realised the camera had moved at the crucial moment. But we could fix that later!

23 june

the next shoot we had was pretty smooth except that we were running out of toilet paper. We had to keep reusing it, but it wasn't too bad as it looked as though it was disintegrating throughout the course of the movie. In some scenes George also played the bandaged man in some scenes so that Sharne could be in charge of the camera and get the shot he really wanted. We filmed the shots out on the street that we had been getting to last time when we were interrupted by the cat. Although we filmed the same scene on different days we can use video filters to create the lighting effects we want. Some of these we didn't use in the actual film, but better more than enough than not enough. By now we reckon we are about 2/3 through the film.

17 june

The first days of shooting at the new setting happened without me, as I was away in Auckland. Sharne and George got Troy in to help with the camera, but he ended up being the bandaged man, so by the end of the film we had three different actors playing the same character. But we don't think anyone will notice! They did two days of shooting and got a lot done
- a selection of establishing shots
- most of the first scenes of the boy in his room and looking around the house.
The bandages had accidentally been left at Paloma's house so they improvised and covered the monsters face with toilet paper, which sounds really stupid but doesn't look that bad. We looked at the footage and decided that the lighting was too bright and that one scene needed to be replaced but apart from that it was going to work.

The first time I went on a shoot we filmed the replacement scene and a few others around the house without a hitch (apart from the small problem that the camera wasn't charged and we had to use an extension cord from the lounge. We were just moving out into the street and setting up, but we kept hearing a really loud meowing noise. We figured out (and filmed) that it must be INSIDE the bonnet of a car. We called the SPCA and stood for ages in the rain while they arrived, tried to find the owners, couldn't, broke into the car and finally rescued the cat. It took so long that we couldn't film anymore after they left, but hey we saved a kitty's life.

15 june

we captured the footage we had and it was terrible! Because of all the arranging and rearranging the actors looked uncomfortable and the setting just didn't work. So we decided to change it all around and have a fresh start.

SAME PLOT
It's still good. A few tiny changes but they won't affect the story.

NEW SETTING
We are going to use Sharne's Grandfathers house. It is just down the round from Paloma's so we can use the same park for the end shot.

NEW ACTORS
Well actually we just swapped them around. George is going to be the main character. Sharne was getting frustrated because he wanted to be behind the camera, so he will play the bandaged man.

9 june

our first days of filming were going to be last weekend but George got really sick and there wasn't much we could do without him, as he is one of the main characters. So we did our first shoot on the Monday double. To start with we got a few different establishing shots, so we have lots to choose from. Then we started our first kind of complicated shot. First problem was that there was nowhere to put the mirror that we needed and so we had to balance in on a computer and a guitar. It fell over all the time. The second was trying to get George into a position where we could see him reflected in the mirror, but with bandages on his face he couldn't see anything and it was really hard. And he also had to bend for ages while we tried to sort out the mirror. We didn't even like the look of the shot because we couldn't get it to zoom fast enough, but we figured we can speed it up on the computer.

3 june

one month until the rough draft is due and I've changed groups for the fourth time. Now there is three of us - me, Sharne and George. The storyboard, concept and design have all done, by most of the people. We plan to start our filming this weekend.

PLOT
A boy is scared in his house by a man, whose head is bandaged. He runs away - big old chase - and stumbles upon a dead body. While looking at the body he is stabbed by the bandaged man. The man then unwraps his bandages to revel that he is the SAME person!

SETTING
Paloma's house for the boy's home and the park down the street for the scene with the body. The chase will happen on the road outside.

ACTORS
Paloma will play the dead body. Sharne and George will be the boy and the man, but we aren't sure which will be which yet.