Recording Diary - How we made our film

Filming
For recording our video we spent most sundays from the 16th january - 6th March.
The sundays in between these dates we spent our spare time on sundays to record our media studies project. We would meet up at the local Tesco and proceed to the garage location.


16th January - This was our first recording of our original script. We were initially unsure of the location and spent much time trying to fix the garage and change the layout to be able to record. We had many problems involving continuity of objects in the garage for next weeks shots, the change of lighting from the window throughout the day & this lead to many shots that could not be used. We decided as a group that it would be too difficult to reconstruct the garage to the position we recorded in and that the shots were not to our full ability. This was a learning curve which we sought to overcome in next weeks recordings.


This is a compilation of the footage filmed during the first two weeks, it was subject to major changes later and its incompetence served as a learning experience and added impetus for our later work.



23rd January - After two relatively unproductive, or rather unsatisfactory, weeks of filming, we decided to evaluate the footage so far. There had been concerns amongst all the group about the quality of the footage as well as the locational issues which plagued our previous attempts. After reviewing the footage we decided that it simply wasn't up to scratch and drastic changes were needed. An intense brainstorming session followed in which the group expressed their concerns and recommendations and in the course of which numerous decisions were made which we felt would substantially improve the film. Among these were the addition of a new location, adopting a more non-linear narrative and substantially reducing the scene of the murder. Following these changes there was a marked improvement and we were able to film most of the first scene that weekend with only minor alterations needed. This dramatic restructuring of the film may have rendered the first two weeks a waste but in the long-run it has proven to be a wise decision and has helped us learn from previous experiences and made us more focused and driven to make this as good as possible.


The remaining weeks were spent ironing out flaws and errors we spotted during the editing process as well as redubbing the vocal tracks.


Editing
The editing began as soon as we had footage available, we would generally work on the editing and evaluate the our work during the week and film at the weekend. This meant that we got the film done piece by piece and so it was a a gradual process rather than one intensive session after filming had ended. It also meant that during our next filming session we could iron out flaws early that we had discovered during editing. The editing work was largely done by Hugh and Dermot however everyone participated at some point and in some form.


Using the footage from the first week we had already found some flaws and alterations were made accordingly, ideally we would have re-assessed at this point rather than later however it was useful nonetheless. We decided that the footage would require significant editing and that visual alterations would serve us well. We decided to go for a high-contrast, saturated look that almost resembled bleach-bypassing. This was inspired by FilmNoir as well as more modern films such as Minority Report which used a similar effect. We hoped to achieve a very gritty, grim, realistic look and we felt that draining the colour could achieve this.


Editing continued as normal with the following weeks of filming though we developed greater expertise with the technology and refined previous shots as well using more advanced techniques. We also then began to contemplate a more non-linear narrative and began to experiment with inter-cutting the two scenes as well as stripping the second down and having faster cuts. We also began to be more considerate and measured with the use of transitions, using them only where we felt they would add to the film; previously we had used them for a majority of cuts and the result was a very cheap,immature looking product.


Editing continued down to the wire as we continued to refine and reshuffle the film but we finally finished with time to spare and are very happy with the result which is a much tighter,structured piece than what we had initially, naively, planned.