Complications

As a group we found it hard to meet up, we had to consider when each other were free. In our next bit of filming Faye was not present so Jodie and myself filmed the bedroom shots on our own. We also realised our voice over shots could only be done in a quiet place, which I had the responsibility of going home and recording myself.

First day of Production

Our first day of production seemed to start off rather well, we found a practical location for filming all outside shots. During filming we had to consider many different angles and heights, although not many of our final piece showed many outside shots we spent the whole time trying to get something practical and relevant. During this shooting, we decided to do single shots, long shots which would show the location, shot reverse shit which we later did not include in our final editing of 'Before I die' and running shots which proved to be unsuccessful because of uneven ground. We tried to use a skateboard to pull along the camera and tripod hoping this would prove a success when filming the running sections, we were going to include the running sections because the character
'Rose' was flying a kite which happened to
be one of the things to do on her bucket list.

After a while of filming, it started to get dark. Although it was not actually too dark outside the camera seemed to absorb more darkness than light and when we later reviewed over these shots we realised they were just to dark to use.
We decided to edit the filming we had then if needed we would go back and do some more filming, which we later did not need to do due to bedroom shots taking over.

During filming we considered many techniques such as pan and zooming in, hoping that this would create a more dramatic effect to the audience.

Film Production Planning

First day of filming:
Date and time: 20th November: 2:00pm
Filming: All outside shots
Location: Fields in Stansted Abbots
Who would be present: Faye Gibbs (Camera operator), Jodie Butcher (actress and director) and Charlotte Andreas (myself) for acting.
Equipment: Video Camera, Tripod, Kite, books

Second day of filming:
Date and time: 27th November: 7:00pm
Filming: All inside shots
Location: Bedroom
Who would be present: Jodie Butcher (camera operator) and myself Charlotte Andreas (acting and directing)
Equipment: Video camera, tripod, notebooks and a pen

Due to disappointment with our first film opening 'Revisited' there wasn't enough time to remake another good film animatic. As a group we quickly put together a basic animatic of 'Before I Die,' although timings are not correct and the animatic pictures clearly do not relate to the appropriate camera shots we were lucky to make a basic outline before getting on with filming. When we sported out the animatic properly which we sadly did not have time to refilm, the opening looked like it was on the way to success with a timing of exactly two minutes.

First i had to think about what was needed to make a good film opening..
When a film grabs your attention from the beggining, giving the audience an idea of the storyline and genre, yet not giving to much away.
The opening should include many techniques including, genre matching music and fast paced editing techniques.

What needs to be included?

• Title
• Credits
• Opening Music
• Dialouge
• Different camera angles
• Camera work editing
• Voice over/Narration
• genre
• introduction to the main charaters

Plot, Genre and audience

Final Plot outline;
After discovering Rose has cancer, she discovers a way to make the most of her life. She knows she cannot rest until she has 'lived.' She confides in her best friend Josephine to help her along the way, Josephine show care and love that Rose is not getting from home life and together they complete Rose's dreams and wishes until her death.

What we intend to display in the film opening according to narrative;

• Introduction of the main character Rose and a small sight of Josephine
• Voice overs
• genre
• music (relevant to mood)

What we intend to display for the selected target audience;

• Rose's purposes
• Emotion
• Age of the main characters

Target Audience: The film, 'Before I Die' is aimed at a teenage audience and most directed at girls, the film is moving and emotional meaning this would not be relevant as a family film and men wouldn't particularly be interested. As the main characters are girls it would apply to girls similar to the characters.

The music and voice over will play a great part in the audience adapting to the genre of the film, the title also gives away a huge clue towards drama.

Finding and planning a new idea

My group and I, took the time to sit down and decide on another idea, we thought back to previous ideas and how we could make them work for filming. We believed a romantic/comedy or drama based idea would be more effective. To make the film opening work we had to come up with a whole film concept, aiming on how the film would appear to the audience, what was going to happen and what we would give away in the first two minutes of the opening.
Faye, Jodie and myself took the time to go away and research new ideas.

After we had rejoined, we shared the ideas from each others film ideas. All were different but based on the same sort of genre. As a group we decided we wanted to do drama and with numerous ideas we settled on a final concept.

'Before I Die' - A film about a young girl dying of cancer, the girl also named as 'Rose Halling' builds up the courage to write a bucket list. As the film develops Rose gradually achieves many of the things she always longed to do, she finds help and guidance through her best friend 'Josephine,' the story drastically shows how Rose struggles with her latest romance and friendships until she is gradually rested from weakness but triumphant.
Even though Before I die, needed much more planning for a two minute opening, we believed if we achieved success the opening would be extravagant and emotionally moving for the audience.

Unfortunately our horror film did not work out as we had planned, although our shots and mise en scenes were very much advanced, while filming in the dark the camera began to blur up. After a few days of filming we realised this film was not going to work, after the planning and effort it was a disaster, i have decided not to publish our planning for 'Revisited' as the filming is uncompleted.