Production Diary

Day 1 - 10/11/14 - Our group got together for the first time so that we  could discuss each of our individual ideas for a film opening. After talking over each different idea we decided that my idea of having a character with a split personality was the best idea to use for our opening. However at this point, we lacked a solid idea for a plot so we only really had the premise to go off of. With what we had, we put together a group film pitch to show to the rest of the class.

Day 2 - 11/11/14 - We took our presentation and showed it to the class in order to get their feedback on the overall idea. The responses were mainly one of two opinions. A few people weren't quite able to grasp the concept of what we were trying to do with the film but this is to be expected as we didn't have a clear direction at this point. Some of the other people liked the idea and thought that it would work well once we got it going properly. After the presentation we looked through names for the film; After having the idea that the other personality would be controlling the main character, we decided to use the Latin word for control, 'Imperium' as out film's title.

Day 3 - 12/11/14 - Here we looked at other film openings that would be similar to our film, either in tone or the way it was shot. We looked at the opening for Shallow grave because it is a dark film and we were leaning towards the idea of making our film a dark one. Some of the other openings we looked at included Forrest Gump. While this film has little to do with ours in terms of tone or plot, the opening of having the main character on a bench is very similar and we wanted to see how it was done there. We also changed the name of the film to 'Dissociation' as we felt that the previous title could have been misleading and confusing to people that would think it was a roman film and not a film set in the present day.

Day 4 - 13/11/14 - To help with out story boarding, we separated and each looked at other film opening credits so that we could see how long shots lasted for and how the names in the titles were shown. After further discussion of our opening, we also decided to make our film more of a black comedy than a drama, making it a little more like the original idea than it was before.

Day 5 - 14/11/14 - This day we continued looking at the other title sequences separately, ordering them into timelines so that all the timings for titles and shots were easily visible. The information gathered here will be helpful in planning our own titles and ensuring that shots lasted for an appropriate length.

Day 6 - 17/11/14 - We assigned each other jobs so that we could work through on the production. This included things like specific sorts or research as well as writing the script and such. We also put together a shot list including the sorts of shots that we would like to include in our opening in order to look interesting.

Day 7 - 18/11/14 -Me and Liv started work on the script for the film. This included coming up with a solid plot for what would happen and planning the character's names. We had a little problem coming up with the humourous lines in the script but aside from that the script writing went well. While we were working on this Mollie was putting together a mood board and Marcus was researching film institutions.

Day 8 - 19/11/14 - This day was a continuation of the last day's tasks. We just carried on with our jobs and finished them up.

Day 9 - 21/11/14 - Me and Liv started to work on our film opening's storyboard. Using the script as  a basis, we were able to work out how long certain shots would need to be as well as angles and such from the shot list that we could include in the film. As I finished drawing the panels for the storyboard, Marcus was able to look at them and being to make a timeline for our opening.

Day 10 - 24/11/14 - The storyboard was finished today and from this we were able to plan our filming. We came up with a shooting schedule so that we could actually being filming the opening.

Day 11 - 25/11/14 - We didn't make any progression today, instead worked on our blogs to make sure everything was caught up on and in check while we waited to begin filming.

Day 12 - 26/11/14 - We didn't make any progression today, instead worked on our blogs to make sure everything was caught up on and in check while we waited to begin filming.

Day 13 - 28/11/14 - Filming began. We left school early to get to the filming location for our film and filmed for between two and three hours. We were able to film the shots specified in the schedule and thanks to the weather, were able to get some nice looking shots. Marcus was behind the camera and did all the filming today

Today we started our filming. We left school at 1:30 to get to Admirals park and filmed for around 2-3 hours. The weather was really nice and we got all of our opening shots done with some of the dialogue. I did most of the camera work, Max and Liv did some acting and we all pitched in our ideas about what we thought would look nice. Eventually it became too dark to film and we had to stop for the day.

Day 14 - 1/12/14 -  We filmed the rest of our shots, changing the ending of the film slightly so that we were able to film it as the use of a bus was not easily attainable at the time of filming. The weather wasn't as nice on this day and we had to get our shots done quickly because of how cold it was getting.

Day 15 - 2/12/14 - We uploaded all the footage for the opening onto the computer and tested out editing the main cloning effect. As this is the most important effect in our film, due to the fact that it is the central focus of the opening, it was important to make sure that the effect worked beforehand.

Day 16 - 3/12/14 - I focused on editing the first draft of the film, not focusing heavily on making the titles accurate, instead adding them there as place holders, and instead putting the clips together in the correct order and cutting them down to make the opening into a coherent movie. Alongside this I had to use a lot of clipping mask to fit two of the same person on screen at the same time. While I was editing the rest of the group worked on researching posters.

Day 17 - 5/12/14 - We showed the finished first draft of the movie to everyone else in the class so that we could get their feedback on what they liked about the movie and what they thought could be changed.

Day 18 - 8/12/14 - After getting the feedback from everyone else we started to make adjustments to the opening. This meant cutting out a large portion of the opening where not a lot happens to make it seem less boring as well as clipping certain shots to remove any wobbles that were noticeable.

Day 19 - 9/12/14 - The next thing to change was the titles as they were only there as placeholders in the first draft. Animations were added to them as well as changing the names, order and place of them to give the opening a more professional overall look.

Day 20 - 10/12/14 - The last thing that needed to be changed was the music for the opening. The music used in the first draft, we decided to change, and so we spent this time all searching for a fitting track to use in the movie, however this proved to take a lot longer than initially anticipated.

Day 21 - 11/12/14 - With the titles finished we continued to look for a music song to put in the movie and tested out several different songs before finally deciding on one that as a group we like and that was able to go alongside the dialogue without overshadowing it.

Day 22 - 12/12/14 - This last session included a lot of self nitpicking and trimming down some shots to make them look better. This came down to, a lot of the time, just cutting off a few frames and moving the titles over by a miniscule amount to center them before finally deciding that the film was finished.