Max found a really good cartoonising plug-in for After Effects and we tested it out yesterday. It looks pretty good, and it would be loads simpler and less time consuming than the Photoshop way doing comic book images.
We'll upload the test cartoonising to YouTube in the next couple of days :)
Yesterday after school we did our main performance shoot. As Mrs Thrasher suggested, Jazmin performed without a microphone and it looked much better. We also did some experimenting with Jazmin standing up and singing, leaning against the wall, sitting on the speakers etc. Like many people have suggested, we also shot lots and lots of close-ups. We ran through the song about 10 times (I think... maybe it was 11...) so there should be quite a lot to choose from.
After a discussion with Jake Wynne in Wednesday's lesson, we realised that maybe Jazmin's character didn't seem lacking in confidence enough, and instead seemed more indecisive. So, we discussed the possibility of having some shots of Ava reading self help books. We also did this yesterday, so that should convey the meaning we want it to...
We've changed our shooting schedule slightly, so here's the new plan for the next few days...
Wednesday 24th September (after school) - shooting with Melissa at Enfield Chase train station. [Wonder Woman's first and last appearances]
Thursday 25th September - Emma's 18th and Angelie's 17th birthday! Yay! =) No shooting that day though
Friday 26th September (after school) - Jazmin's performance shots. Also any necessary reshoots.
**EDIT: After speaking to the teachers, we've discovered that it's not really necessary to reshoot any of our narrative shots, so 26/09 will just be performance**
This weekend we managed to shoot almost all the narrative footage we needed to with exception of Wonder Woman walking and her introductory shot.
We had fun doing it (lots of silly quotes on the white boards =]) and it didn't take as long as we expected it would do.
We've uploaded all of the footage and will be looking through to identify re-shoots that we need to do
Emma
I agree that Jazmin does look uncomfortable with the mic and we should shoot footage without it however i also think that we can still use some of our old footage because at times she does have moments of confidence holding it.
Emma
P.S. Sorry this is so late, I was at Warwick and then shooting all day today so couldn't blog before =]
Actually, now that I think about it, I kind of agree with the microphone thing, that was the source of a couple of problems actually... first day the microphone was too far from her mouth (on the stand), second time it was sort of waving about, like Mrs Thrasher said. We've got a performance shoot scheduled for next Friday anyway, so we could try the performance without a microphone...
We'll see what Emma thinks too...
Hi girls!
After lengthy discussions Angelie & I have decided that we won't be using Starbucks tomorrow, we will instead be using a park bench where the guy will sit down next to Ava as our hero brings them over drinks (we were thinking hot chocolates) so that there is less people likely to get in the way of the shoot.
We're also rethinking our mugging sequence too.
Emma
Today we did some more shooting and overall it went quite well. We were a bit pushed for time, since Jazmin only had Periods 2 and 3 off, so had to be back by Period 4, but we worked hard and managed to get about 15-20 mins of footage (I think!). We did what Ms Blackborow suggested and took lots of MCUs, CUs etc. And we got Jazmin to be a bit more exaggerated with her performance, and since she takes direction really well, the footage we did get was quite good. So now tomorrow we just have to watch it back and capture it!
This afternoon we had a performance shoot which went fairly well. Jazmin was really good at performing and she comes across really well on camera. We're doing some more shooting tomorrow and as Ms Blackborow has mentioned in her feedback post below, our main aim will be to get some shots of more exaggerated performance and also shoot some more tightly framed shots. Hopefully everything will go well!
Oh also, we'll probably upload some of our footage onto YouTube and then link it to the blog some time soon :)
I don't know if i said this before but i do really like the set girls, lovely colours and textures, and jazmin looks gorgeous btw.
just go a bit wild on the performance this time and get in nice and close with your camera (plenty of mids and mcu's too) so you end up with some good cutaways.
nice sweeping shots and plenty of creative movement would be great too
good luck for thursday
"Holding Out For A Hero"
Where have all the good men gone
And where are all the gods?
Where's the street-wise Hercules
To fight the rising odds?
Isn't there a white knight upon a fiery steed?
Late at night I I toss and turn and dream of what I need
[Chorus]
I need a hero
I'm holding out for a hero 'til the end of the night
He's gotta be strong
And he's gotta be fast
And he's gotta be fresh from the fight
I need a hero
I'm holding out for a hero 'til the morning light
He's gotta be sure
And it's gotta be soon
And he's gotta be larger than life
Somewhere after midnight
In my wildest fantasy
Somewhere just beyond my reach
There's someone reaching back for me
Racing on the thunder and rising with the heat
It's gonna take a superman to sweep me off my feet
[Chorus]
Up where the mountains meet the heavens above
Out where the lightning splits the sea
I would swear that there's someone somewhere
Watching me
Through the wind and the chill and the rain
And the storm and the flood
I can feel his approach
Like the fire in my blood
[Chorus]
Emma
I've posted the pictures of possible wall coverings on my individual blog and figured I'd post them on here too...
Pictures of the sarees/other material:
Angelie
After talking to Ms B the other day two things came out of the discussion. The first idea was that we could use newspaper to cover the window like in Christina Aguilera's 'Beautiful'. The second was taht we should use fabric/material to cover it. We will try out both of these over the weekend to see which is best.
Emma
Since Jazmin can't make the originally planned shoot on Sunday, I'm going over to Emma's house and we're going to set up the performance room for later on in the week. We're also going to test out different types of lighting and some continuity techniques (for the narrative shots).
Props for Sunday:
Angelie
Jazmin is unable to shoot this Sunday, so we've rearranged our planned shooting times slightly....
Our new shooting times are:
Wednesday 17th September from 1 pm - Performance
Thursday 18th September from 10am - Performance
Friday 19th September from 3pm - Narrative
Sunday 21st September from 10am - Narrative
Friday 26th September from 3pm - Performance
Sunday 28th September from 10am - Narrative
Angelie
hey girls with the bedroom shots can you disguise the windows so you can't see the street/houses etc in the background
Ms B
Our proposed shooting times are:
Sunday 14th September from 10am - Narrative
Thursday 18th September from 10am - Performance
Friday 19th September from 3pm - Performance
Sunday 21st September from 10am - Narrative
Friday 26th September 2008 - Performance
Sunday 28th September from 10am - Narrative
Emma & Angelie
Now that our performance shots are taking place indoors, it doesnt really make sense to have the decision signposts with the singer. So, we've decided that for each scenario that takes places in the narrative part of the video, there will be a signpost in the place where Ava's character is meant to be making the decision. As time goes on, she'll start to pay less attention to the signposts, to signify her gaining confidence. At the end, there will be a blank signpost or the signpost will disappear (???)
Bedroom:
For our scenarios that are in a bedroom we have decided to use my bedroom because it's got a lot of natural light for most of the day, we can move the bed to create more space, we can change mirrors to suit what we want and I don't mind changing stuff around generally!
We will also be using what is currently used as a music room which has a small enclove that we're going to decorate and move the furniture out of/rearrange so that we can use it (which I will post a picture of later)
We've had some more discussions and realised that Jazmin may not have been able to do the different weekends so we've asked Melissa (the one who went to Hollywood) if she would be the superhero and she happily agreed to do all the original shooting weekends. This is easier because it goes with our original idea, we might be able to shoot in free time and doesn't mess Jazmin around. Melissa's also been in our media project before so we know she's reliable, gets on with Jazmin and is very enthusiastic!
Emma & Angelie
We were talking and we think we may have found a solution to our problem of James being unable to shoot on the designated weekends. If James can commit, we'd like to shoot with him on the 14th September, 5th and 12th October instead. In the mean time we can shoot Jazmin's performance shots and edit that as well as completing the album cover and MySpace. .
Also, we've decided on shooting the performance shots all in one room which we would dress up to suit the style of our singer. This would be less complicated, more reliable and less restricted than if we were to shoot in central London with only the two of us. We'll post pictures on the blog ASAP.
We've spoken to Miss B about it and she has no problems with our decision
The Group
Jennifer has decided not to continue with Media this year, so the group is now just Angelie & Emma!
Jennifer has offered to help with shooting and act in the video as originally planned, we will discuss this further later.
The Group
*EDIT* We've decided to use James, our original actor, as our hero instead of Jennifer
Today (Monday) and yesterday (Sunday) we were meant to be having meetings to storyboard and get location address respectively. But as Angelie and I are/were both ill we decided it was best to cancel and catch up on the work ASAP when we're both less ill.
Emma
x
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