Production Diary

Generally we stuck to our initial plans and storyboard however a few changes were made and scenes cut after advice from our teachers to enhance our opening, increasing the pace in the attempt to make it more exciting for the audience.

I think we worked well as a group and we all tried to share the workload  although there were some issues with absence which disrupted the filming process. This gave the group an insight into how important working as a team and being considerate to others is.None-the-less we pressed on and things started to run more smoothly, with the exception of some minor disagreements regarding the editing process. However we all had to come to an agreement and tried to work as professionally as possible.

Bruna and I did most of the filming whilst Nkiru and Raymond performed as actors. This worked well as when Bruna would film I could still suggest certain camera angles or postitioning of the camera and give ideas I thought would work well or improvements which could be made. The editing was a joint process, however, generally, I would use the program manually, asking for direction and consulting Nkiru and Bruna, who would generally sit next to me so we could work as a group. We felt this would be the most time effective system as they didnt know how to use the program but could still give input using this method.

When beginning to edit and piece together footage we also noticed there where not enough establishing shots of the area, especially in the estate scene, therefore Nkiru revisited the estate and shot footage of the surrounding area which really helped the audience to get a feel of the urban landscape setting. 

After filming a school scene of Nkiru hard at work in a classroom where other students were disrespectful to the teacher and unengaged in the lesson we decided it didn't work and was an unrealistic portrayal of a classroom as some actors where over dramatic in their performance. We decided to change this to a scene showing Nkiru walking into the school through the corridor carrying her folders and books, to show her studious character. We placed other students in the corridor chatting and messing around, creating a contrast in characters and highlighting that she is motivated to get to lesson, even when her peers are having fun. We then employed a split scene showing Jake leaving the school (with the implication he left to go and get his money) which was intended to be followed by the fight scene. However unfortunately we were told to cut this scene, against my personal wishes, as we were told it was better to start with the fight scene to grab attention of viewers. We also had two different soundtracks on the different scenes, the fight scene had the same British grime/rap music playing (that now runs throughout) and on the estate scene we had an instrumental beat with no lyrics playing in the background that faded out when conversation began on the stairs. We were advised it would be more consistent with one track playing throughout the peice and to mute the dialogue as to not reveal too much. I personally didn't 100% agree with these changes but during a lesson I was absent the changes were made to our film but I compromised as to not cause tension between group members.