Post-Production

Our post-production consisted of the entire editing stage of our final production. This included the capturing, exporting and the many decisions and hurdles we had to climb over as a group. I have taken 8 screen shots of throughout our editing stage on Adobe Premiere Pro, and will discuss any major decisions we went through as a group with these stages.

Screen shot 1:
This first screen shot is of scene 11. Due to on this day of filming, the microphone kept cutting out and resulted in having no sound on occasional parts of scenes. With this scene, Leon and the mother are arguing in the kitchen as we have the visual of Lily coming down the stairs and listening. Luckily, we had sound for this scene, however after Adobe Premiere Pro crashed, the sound for this scene disappeared.

After we searched for the piece of sound and were unable to find it, we resorted to re-adding the sound clip, editing the levels so they fitted appropriately with the scenes and shots both before and after.

We also found that we had a similar with scene 14. Here we lost the picture rather than the audio. We checked to see if we had 'hidden' that layer, however this was not the case. So similarly to above, we re-added both the sound and picture to make sure they were still in sync with each other.

Screen shot 2:
With this screen shot, it was the simple decision of when and where it was appropriate to place cross dissolves between shots. Collectively we felt that we needed longer and slower cross dissolves between the changes in days, and shorter more abrupt cross dissolves when it is only a change within a few seconds, minutes or hours.
The day changes were also made longer by making a gap between the two scenes, leaving a short period of black screen.

Screen shot 3:
This screen shot is one of the first decisions we made as a group when it came to editing. For scene 2 we filmed and extra shot to add emphasis to what Leon is picking up. Although it is a jump cut, we felt it added to the story and could be considered as one of our stylistic attributes.

When editing the shots in this scene together, we cut the shot of Lily watching Leon pick up his stuff into two and placed this in the middle. However, when doing this we had to make sure Leon's hand was in the right place moving from one shot, to another of him picking up his stuff.

This shot was also over-layered with drum and bass music coming loudly from his bedroom. This sound was filmed separately so it could be singularly controlled. Finding the correct levels so it sounded realistic proved as a challenge due to making it suddenly stop as if Leon had switched off his music before heading off on his way out. We also made sure the music levels varied for each day. For example, in scene 12 when Lily walks past her brother's closed door, we made sure the music sounded more dull and muted by the door.

Another example with the drum and bass music was scene 5 when Leon is playing xbox and slams the door in Lily's face. Here we decided upon lowering the music around the speech and door slamming to make sure it did not take away the emphasis of the aggression presented.

Screen shot 4:
After capturing all our clips, we discovered that a great deal of our clips suffered from high levels of interference. So as a group we went through sound effects including: De-Esser, De-Hummer, De-Crackler and De-Noiser. We decided that De-esser and De-hummer had no effect on the interference levels so we stuck to using just De-crackler and De-noiser. The settings we used for both included:
De-crackler:
- Reduction 100%
- Threshold 0%

De-noiser:
- Threshold 0%
- Reduction 20db
- Offset 10db

We also found out that by double layering these effects you were able to lower extreme levels of interference greatly. The shots with major interference included 3.2, 4.1, 8.2 and the whole of scenes 9 and 10.

The scene visible in this screen shot is scene 13, which was one of our main scenes in our film. Lily is found muting the TV to listen to the argument happening between her mother and brother. We overlapped the sound of these shots with the argument between Leon and the mother to find that the argument was too short for the scene. We decided to try and take the 'just fucking leave it' from a previous argument and place it on the end, resulting in making it longer. However after attempting this, we felt that Leon's attitude was not in the context of this argument and took it back out. The argument sound was also double layered so you were able to hear what was being said.

Screen shot 5:
This screen shot is of scene 4, which suffered a few issues down the line. The main issue was that it would not play through and kept jolting, even after rendering. This was resolved by re-adding the scene's shots onto the timeline. Although we had resolved the issue of the scene not playing, we had to readjust all of our continuity. How smooth and flowing the movement of Lily picking up and using her books was commented on in our audience feedback of our rough cut and we wanted it to be the same again. We also picked up on the feedback of this scene being two slow so we cut out the first shot, and the last shot of the previous scene to increase the pace.

Once the visual was sorted for this scene, we realised that the sound of the television in the background did not match continuity. We resolved this by choosing the best TV sound out of all the shots in this scene and extended it's length so it took over the whole scene. We were lucky that in this scene there was no major sound made by Lily.

Screen shot 6:
This screen shot is of scene 10. This scene suffered greatly due to the microphone not working and losing large amounts of sound. Sound was a necessity in this scene as it contains a great deal of dialogue. This meant that we had to work around which shots had sound, taking out any that didn't. This included our main shot reverse shot, and the extreme close up of Leon's face, which we felt added great emphasis and the make up of the bruised eye adds to the realism.

Continuity was also an issue with this scene as we had to make sure there hands and Leon's hood was in the right place when lines were being said. However the scene was cut down with shots removed and shorten to only contain the vital shots. An example of this was where the mother is closing the dishwasher. We cut this out as it did not add anything to the story and the kitchen is not big enough to see what she is doing fully unless it's a very high-angled shot.

Screen shot 7:
This screen shot is of the creation of the titles for the beginning of the sequence. As a group we had to decided what was necessary to have as titles at the beginning and what could be left until the end credits. For the beginning we decided to have our production team name, the two main actors names and the title of the film 'My Brother Leon'.

We decided to keep both the opening titles and ending credits as simple as possible, using plain white font on a black background. Our main font used throughout was Trajan Pro, as it matched what was used on my postcards. I felt this font was also appropriately used as it quite sharp.

When creating the opening titles we left the film to play until just before the fade up to scene 4, until we put on the title 'My Brother Leon'. As a group we felt that this was more conventional of films and took good use of a black fade out. The transitions between each of the credits was also just a simple cross dissolve. We decided on this against the generic 'roll' of credits up the screen because it fitted more suitably with the pace of the ending music.

Screen shot 8:
This final screen shot is presenting how the end credits were created. As we have done throughout our project, we started by setting our sound levels with the bars and tone and the speakers, making sure it was at an audible level.

We then decided that the credits will flow more appropriately if the fade up's and fade down's were placed on time with the beats in the piece of music. So before creating the visuals for the credits, we went through the soundtrack and placed markers on every beat until about a minute in - this made it easier to line up the titles with the marker on the music. The final credit also fades out slower than the rest, ending on what we all considered to be an appropriate place on the track.

Production Report

Day 1:
On our first day of filming, we tried to film as many shots as possible that were similar to each other. These included all shots from scenes 2, 5, 12, 3 and 6 - Only using two of our locations: The upstairs and downstairs hallways. All of these scenes were evening scenes, and unfortunately we still had natural light. This meant that we had to black out windows with black card and black bin liners to achieve the level of light that we wanted for night time scenes. We also had to set up Leon's bedroom, getting ready all the props and making it appear like a messy teenage boys room.

Out of all these scenes, there is only one line of dialogue, which made the filming process run smoothly as the actors had less to remember. The filming of these scenes was finished within a few hours, including the filming of extra takes as precaution. I feel that it went as smoothly as it did, due to the excitement of finally starting to put our planning into a finished product leaving us working well together with no major disagreements.

Day 2:
Day 2 we managed to film 3 scenes, including 9, 10 an 11. When drawing up our shooting schedule, I felt that filming these scenes together is a necessity due to the time of day we needed to film. Due to having no curtains or blinds in my kitchen, it was vital that we filmed when it was dark. We all met at our location at around 5.30, setting up everything needed until it finally got dark. This included creating Leon's 'beaten up' make up, getting our actors into costume, and helping them get the desired emotion out of their lines.

Once it got dark enough to film realistically, we started with scene 9, which is Leon coming through the door. This scene had to be re-shot numerous times due to Josh having trouble unlocking the door. Next we moved onto scene 11, which was still in the hallway, with Lily listening to the second half of the argument from the bottom of the stairs. By doing this scene first, Danielle and Josh were both able to read through the scripts helping them memorise more so, and get deeper into their characters.

The final scene of the evening was scene 9. This took a large amount of time, and a great deal of effort on all our parts due to a number of problems. These included the lack of sound, interference levels and the number of takes we had to do for each shot due to lines being forgotten. The shot-reverse-shot shots in this scene had to be filmed by me as I was one of the smallest in our crew, leading to me being the only one able to fit on the counter to film. To make sure I was not seen in the window whilst filming, we moved the plant pot along to disguise my reflection.

This may have been our longest evening of filming, with the whole team tiring. However, once we got these scenes out of the way, we felt more of a drive to get on with the rest of the filming.

Day 3:
Due to this being a Friday, we had the camera from 11am and were able to film any day scenes needing naturalistic bright lighting. These included scenes 14, 15, 16 and 17. Again these scenes are linear to each other because of the need of a specific time of day.

Luckily all of our actors were also available to film during the day. Our only organisational issue that we really faced on this day was the fact that we forgot to bring the base plate for the camera, and had to go back to school to get it. Whilst Danah went back to school to get the base plate, the rest of us set up each of the rooms needed on scene including tidying Leon's bedroom (putting his tracksuit bottoms neatly folded on the end of the bed), moving about the living room (putting sofas in the correct places and having minimalistic props on the coffee table).

When we finally got onto filming, we had issues concerning that quality of acting. I felt that this was that case due to never having to be a mother losing a son or a policeman in real life that they were unable to get into character. We also had problems with the sound. This was down to two factors: One was with filming outside there was uncontrollable noises such as cars driving past and the wind. The other was inside variables such as the washing machine making noises whilst we were trying to film. These could however be used as advantages, adding in to the realism of our film.

Day 4:
Again, due to needing dark lighting, we had to wait for another evening to film, taking into consideration that none of us would have been able to reach to black out all the Velux windows in the living room safely. For filming on this day we only needed to film in one room, with one actor (Steph). As Steph has nothing to say throughout the film, we were able to film all of the necessary shots with ease. The scenes shot were 4, 7 and 13.

The filming also ran with ease as we prepared for this day of filming the Sunday previous, where I taped the Hollyoaks Omnibus, which we planned to having running through in the background. This made things easier when it came to continuity, and we made sure that whenever we had stopped filming, that the recording of Hollyoaks was also stopped. We also prepared the Hangman drawing previous to filming.

When setting up the lighting for this day of filming, we made sure that any added lights had an orange filter to add to the warm effect around Lily. This was opposite to Leon, where we used a cold blue gel.

Day 5:
This was our final day of filming, consisting of only filming our final scene - Scene 8. As this was filmed at a different location, it had potential to be a problem, as people may have struggle to get there, however this was not the case.

Only the lamp already in the bedroom was needed to create a realistic night-time setting. This meant that no large lengths of time needed to be spend setting up lighting. However the main focus of the days filming was the sound of the argument happening outside of the bedroom. We ran through the script numerous times to make sure we had the correct levels from being in the bedroom. Due to our actors also not having to learn the scene's dialogue off-by-heart, made our day of filming significantly shorter.

One thing I felt went well this day was how aggressive the argument between Leon and the gang member really sounded. When going over the script with them, they felt it necessary that they added their own personality into their characters, leading to them improvising around the script slightly, which resulted in a greater success. Filming ended on a high note and we were keen to get onto editing what we had shot as soon as possible.

Pre-Production

Set Designs:
All of these way drawn up an annotated by Emma Horton, our production designer. These drawings were necessary as we needed to decided on how to change around our sets to make them potentially more fitting of the story.

Lily's Bedroom design:

Leon's Bedroom design:

Living Room design:


Risk Assessment:
As a group we agreed and disagreed on what would be classed as a risk and what may not. However, final decisions were made by Sam Cunningham, who gave us an idea of potential hazards when filming on set.

Costume List:

The costumes for the characters was discussed by the group by finalised by Emma Horton.

Costume designs:
We all agreed on suitable designs for all our characters costumes, trying to make them most realistic and fitting to the characters personality. These designs were drawn up and finalised by our production designer, Emma Horton.

The first design of Leon, consists of a blue 'Hoody' influenced by U.S Urban singers and rappers, and in the colour blue to represent masculinity and the coldness of his attitude: a pair of tracksuit bottoms for later on in the film, showing less care and effort put into his appearance: The leather jacket was influenced by the film Kidulthood, which gave a slight modern edge to the outfit.

The second design is of Lily's school uniform, including tights, a tie, a shirt and a black skirt. The use of uniform is to signify both the time and day of the week. It also connotes that the girl is young and innocent, staying in her uniform into the evening.

The third design is of Lily's pyjamas. Lily is in her pyjamas both in the morning shots after just waking up, and in the scenes late at night. Lily's innocence and youth is again represented through this outfit. It adds to both the naturalistic and realistic feel of the project.

The fourth design is of both the concepts for the mother's outfits. Both of these outfits are both designed to connote a young mother. The first outfit, the pink dressing gown and pyjamas are worn in scene 10 and 11, and are worn to suggest that the mother has been waiting up late for her son to come home. Using the colour pink also suggests that she is a feminine, warm and caring character. The loose cardigan and jeans are worn when answering the door to the police man, due to be loose fitted clothing, it connotes that the mother has stopped caring as much about her appearance. The black colour of the cardigan suggesting death and darkness.

Location Recce:
The location recce photos were taken by both me and Emma Horton. They were edited together on Adobe Photoshop and saved as Jpeg files.

These photos are of the location we have decided to use for Lily's bedroom. Numerous things connote that the room belongs to a teenage/young girl. These include the purple colours of the bedroom, the pink dressing gown on the floor, the ornaments on the wall, and the simple female items such as a pink perfume bottle. When it comes to changing the room around for shooting, we will remove any photos that do not involve or relate to the character, add a teddy bear (to add to the youth) and we will place black outs behind the window so that no light is shown.

Due to this being a night time scene, no major lighting will be necessary. However, we have decided to use the bedside lamp for a more realistic feel, suggesting that she may be afraid of sleeping in the dark; which is pluged into a socket behind the bed.These photos are taken of the room we are wanting to use for our living room setting. We want the room to appear smaller than it is, focusing in on the area around the T.V and the coffee table. To try and achieve the effect of having a smaller living room, we will move the sofa on the side on it's own, bringing it round to feel more inclusive. We will also clear the coffee table and at props relevant to the characters and their personalities and lifestyles. These may include holiday brochures and magazines for the mother and coke bottles and homework folders for the girl.

The lighting in these shots we want to appear as warm and naturalistic, as if it is the girls 'safe haven' from a world where her family are arguing. With this in mind, there are multiple double plug sockets around the room which can be used to plug in red head lights with orange gels.

These photos are of the upstairs hallway in which each of the days in the project will start. Due to the hallway not being overly viewed in each shot, there is not much that needs to be changed. However, it can be cleared of unnecessary items, such as the towel, the shirts hung up and the hoover. By leaving it plain it gives quite a sterile feel, which will be added to by blue gels and pro-light lighting. The pro-light is needed due to this hallway having no windows, and having to keep the doors shut to keep the light out. Even though they are usually evening scenes, we still need enough light to film with.

These photos are of the kitchen we will be using for scene 10, our arugument scene between the mother and Leon. We decided to use this kitchen as it has a large window which could suggest that the mother was looking out of the window for Leon as she waited for him to come home. The only issue with having a window this large is that we have to wait until it is completely dark until we can film, this is because having black outs on the window would look unrealistic and would be visible.

If we find we do need lighting in this night scene, there are numerous double plugs located around the room. However, the main lighting for the room is quite strong so it may prove unnecessary for extra lighting.

These are photos of the downstairs hallway scenes for our project. It is quite a small space, so moving anything not needed, such as the woven basket, will be required. Other issues will include the mirror and not getting the camera and lighting caught in the mirror; and the lack of windows in this area. Due to the lack of windows, we will need to use a pro-light to add some lighting to the room. There is a double plug and extension cord down by the lamp on the shelving, which can be used to plug in the lighting, as long as it is not visible in the mirror.

This bedroom will be used as Leon's bedroom in our film production. We chose this room because it's plain and simple, where props and set design can easily be added to make the room more masculine. Although there are no scenes directly in this bedroom, it is still visible. Things that can be added and changed around include: The mess of the bedroom, boys clothes can be strewn across the floor and the bed can be left unmade connoting a stereotypical teenage boy; A games controller and console can be added, again adding to the stereotype. The smaller drawers can also be moved close to the door where it is at a low enough level for the knife and cigarettes to be put on, presenting a darker represenation of a teenage boy.

The main lights in this room would be too bright to use in any of the scenes, so using the lamp on the larger drawers, with a blue gel to represent the coldness of Leon, would be more appropriate. This can be plugged into a four-socket extension cable plugged in behind the drawers.

Storyboard:

The storyboard was dicussed by the group, and drawn up by Danah Hussain.

Shooting Schedule:

Being the director of the group, I was given the task of drawing up and organising the shooting schedule for the project. Before typing up the shooting schedule, I had to think of realistic tasks and time schedules for the group to work by. Along with this I had to check the availability of each of the crew and cast.

Film Treatment:

The film treatment was discussed by the group and typed up by me. The production went through a number of changes, which I tried to update and adapt to the most recent version. The treatment is made up of what we as a group would like to happen with both the visual and audio

conventions.

Shot List:

The shot list was devised by me and Danah. We went through, scene by scene, which ideals and which shots we thought would be effective in our film. We took into consideration the use of jump cuts artistically and the length and style of shots which would be most effective, including shot-reverse-shot, high-angled and low-angled shots. After we discussed a rough copy of our shot list, I typed up a copy so it was easily edited and accessible.

Script:

Being the director, I was give the job of writing and typing up the script. This proved as a slight challenge as I needed to put myself in the shoes of my characters, creating dialect that would be realistically spoken. For our character Leon, I took notes on the language used in KiDULTHOOD - this included a large amount of swearing and 'man' on the end of sentences.

For Lily, I decided to not make her speak the whole way through the film, which I felt would clearly present her character. Due to not having any dialogue, I had to present her with clear body directions, she had to appear insecure, innocent and loney.