OSIRIS UNBOUND Sneak Peak #1

Feedback v.03

Well done for completing the questionnaire and beginning the filming diary, although the screenshots should be accompanied by a write up of the day. This should regularly be added to as the blog should be the record of all of the hard work you are putting in outside of lesson times. There has been nothing posted since the 1st November, and no evidence of filming since the end of October. You must regularly add to your blog to show the 'work-in-progress' nature of the project. Remember you can also upload any online tutorials you have watched, along with an explanation of what you have learned from them.

Targets:

Post re women may need revising!

Storyboard - this is now a matter of urgency

Regularly updated filming diary, with discussion of what went well, what the challenges were, which scenes you shot etc

REMEMBER All filming to be completed by 20th December

Re-Regarding the Representation of Women

Enigma Entertainment is pleased to announce to the female community that there is potentially another female role in the upcoming film 'Osiris Unbound'. The woman in question features in a short scene where they are pursued by Crucifix agents, before being brutally murdered. Although it is only a minor role, we believe that it is a breakthrough in Enigma Entertainment's production style, as women have never before been cast in an Enigma Production. My sister, Eleanor, has been cast in the role and though it may appear to be bias casting, we chose the actress especially for her revolutionary acting style and her fortunate position of being on the same holiday to the Isle of Wight as me, so we were able to capture a number of shots there. Unfortunately there will be no further female roles available in the film, as addressed in the initial announcement concerning women. Apologies.

Shooting Over the Summer

While our outline for the trailer had not been fully envisioned until the start of this term, we has the very basic concept of genre and tone and were aware that we would require a wide range of footage. Thus we made sure we exploited our summer effectively in order to aid the production of the trailer. Both myself and my colleague, Nicholas, were to go on holiday during the summer; him to the far reaches of the world, in Australia, and me to Paris and also the Isle of Wight.

While we were away we brought filming equipment. Nicholas, being the owner of our main camera, captured his footage using the Panasonic HDC-S90, which featured an anti-shake feature and would maintain our established look. I, however, was left only with two options; my cameraphone, the Galaxy Note, which could capture very high quality high definiton but at the expense of stability, a fault exascerbated by my shaky hands (and which I brought with me to Paris), and my sister's iPod Touch 5G which could produce excellent images with perfect stability to boot.

 

With only a basic idea of what was going to happen in our trailer we weren't ready to record any significant scenes or any dialogue, but instead capture many establishing shots and action shots, with our locations being optimum spots due to the famous landmarks and breathtaking landscapes. In Paris I had the advantage of filming such famous places as the Arc de Triomphe and the Pere Lechaise cemetery, while Nicholas had some stunning cliffs in Australia, and the Isle of Wight had a castle and an exciting multi-coloured sand beach. While much of this footage will probably end up on the cutting room floor due to the somewhat irrelevance to our film's narrative, (and the shakiness in the case of the Paris shots) what will be used, however, will immensely add to the production value of the trailer due to the exciting international locations which demonstrate the lengths to which we have gone to produce it.

Reusing Unused Footage from SINS OF THE MARTYR

During production of our AS opening, we were so engrossed in the narrative and possibilities of producing a full film that we set our aims on completing our short film - a continuation of the opening sequence to 'Sins of the Martyr'. Despite a considerable amount of footage being shot and edited, we ultimately decided to abandon plans for the full feature due to time constraints and lack of cast availability in addition to a decline in our lack of interest as we wished to move on to other projects.

However it would be foolish to completely scrap this existing material so we made the choice to incorporate what had been shot into our A2 trailer. We even used a lot of this footage to put together the announcement teaser - which would have been less interesting if there had not been any footage to use. Due to the cast, characters and subject material the existing footage will fit seamlessly alongside the new sequences that we plan to shoot and take the pressure off us regarding accumulating enough footage for editing, though we still intend to film a huge amount in order to maintain the look and feel of an expensive production - which means, inevitably, that a lot of it won't make it into the final product.

Evaluation: First Day of Shooting

Our day began at 9:15, when we boarded the train to London Waterloo. Unfortunately Lee Davidson was unable to attend the shoot due to prior commitments, so on the train we made some last minute adjustments to the scene, so it became a scene with just Nicholas and myself. On the train on the way up we ran through the schedule with our cast and crew, detailing where we were to go in London and what we were going to film. The basic plan was to film a meeting on Parliament Hill between Nicholas and myself, and then film an action sequence in Highgate Cemetery. If we had time we planned to go to Camden Market to film some inserts there. It was due to rain, but we thought that that would just add to the atmosphere of the film, especially in the cemetery. The only problem we foresaw was the camera getting wet, but we had an umbrella at the ready. 

At 10:00 we arrived at Waterloo station, and at first were slightly confused concerning the underground map, however eventually we found our way onto the Northern line to Belsize Park station, which was the closest to Hampstead Heath. If all went to plan we wouldn't have to take another train to the cemetery, as our shoot would carry us across the heath. However, we got slightly lost on the heath. The paths from the station to the heath were confusing, and when we got to the heath we weren't sure where the Parliament Hill part was, as the rain obscured our view considerably. We filmed a shot of James walking across a field that looked moderately desolated which could be used to intercut, and then carried on searching. The group morale sank at this time due to the heavy rainfall and the lack of productivity.

It was about 12:30 or so that we finally located Parliament Hill, but to our severe disappointment the view was terrible due to the rain. The camera couldn't even pick up a few of the famous landmarks that you could only just see with the naked eye through the rain. We filmed a few shots of Nicholas and myself sitting on a bench, and talking, but we were behind schedule because of the rain. It had become a bigger problem than anticipated. After these shots we decided it was essential to bring the morale up, so we took a detour to Camden Town for a KFC bargain bucket.

Around 13:00 we arrived at Camden Town KFC, being able to find our way off the heath significantly faster than finding our way on. KFC was crowded and we were forced to sit on uncomfortable stools, but the group morale was raised and the vegetarian James proclaimed: 'That was the best KFC I've ever had!' We decided to put our filming at Highgate Cemetery on hold indefinitely, as we decided that would be almost as miserable as filming on the heath, so instead we resolved to filming a few shots around Camden Town. We filmed a couple of shots of me running, and then found the infamous Cyberdog shop, where we filmed a couple of shots of Zubin walking around. After filming a number of shots here we had a discussion as to where to go next, and we decided that, seeming as the rain had stopped, it would be alright to film at Highgate Cemetery. 

After much confusion on trains and buses, we arrived at Highgate Cemetery at approximately 15:45, where we were greeted by the most delightful old gatekeeper with much enthusiasm. After a ten minute lecture on the history and heritage of the site, we moved into the cemetery and pulled out Zubin's spray painted BB gun to film some action sequences. This became a race against the clock, as the Cemetery closed at 17:00 and all visitors had to head for the gate at 16:45. We had around 45 minutes to film as many action shots as possible, forcing us to be as efficient as possible. Fortunately, it seemed to be the most productive 45 minutes of filming we'd ever done, probably because of the time restrictions. We filmed a number of shots of people shooting guns, pointing guns, chasing, fighting, looking at gravestones, posing, pausing for breath and more! Although it would have been nice to have had longer to create a rounded scene, this was not possible, so we made the most with what time we had.

At 17:00 we headed home, after a grueling day of filming. We didn't do everything which we would have liked to get done, but this was mainly due to the bad weather getting us lost, obscuring shots and lowering group morale. Without the weather we would have had a far more productive day, but unfortunately it was out of our control. This day was one of the few days which we were able to film an action sequence in Highgate Cemetery as it was an inset day, so no one would be around. The lack of productivity was largely out of our control, but we still got a fair number of shots that will be highly useful in the final cut of the trailer, even if they weren't exactly what we were hoping for when we began.

Screenshots: First Day of Shooting