T.V. & New Broadcasting Media Blog - Jordan Jackson

This week was our final week to get everything done. We had a lot to finish this week, as we started production very late. Really we had planned to be done a few weeks ago, but we only started last week, and had only filmed three scenes (of about 10). Therefore, we have met up Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday from 1.00pm to 10.00pm for filming. Then I spent Friday editing, and then met with a group member on Sunday to finish editing. Although, we left production and post-production to the last-minute, we still had enough time, and only rushed a few scenes.  Filming this week has been difficult, because we half of the scenes we need are set in daytime, and the other half in the evening, so we have had to have been very organised with what shots to film when. Many of the shots set in the day have in fact been filmed whilst it is dark, however, these shots were filmed inside away from windows, so I don't think it notices. In addition, it was advisable to film the mopping scene in the...

Yet again our group member did not show. Therefore, we have replaced him. We started filming this week, shooting the opening scene of our piece. This was quite slow progress, but I think it is only because it was our first day, and we lacked organisation. After filming the opening, we realised that we now need another cast member, as the person playing a student in our film is now playing the protagonist. We met up later in the week to film the 'milkshake' scene of our film. In this scene a girl (student) asks the janitor to bin her milkshake for her by throwing it at him. The janitor is caught off guard and is covered by the milkshake. For this scene we bought a big bottle of milkshake, and numerous paper cups from the canteen. We spent a good while practicing throwing, and throwing milkshakes at the wall to make sure we were to get the effect we wanted. Practicing was essential, because we would only get one attempt at this, as the milkshake would stain. This turned out oka...

This week we were adamant to start filming. I had contacted our film projects protagonist and had been assured he would show. However, once my group arrived ready to film, the 'janitor' of our film did not show, and was impossible to get a hold of. My group and I have decided this member has one more week, or else we will replace him.

This week I met up with most of the group. The plan was for us to begin filming, however, the 'janitor' of our production did not show. Being the main character, he was essential. Instead of filming we decided to practice with a camera, to familiarise ourselves with it. Although, disappointing our group member did not show, learning how the camera works was of much help. I now understand the white balance, how to use the iris, the zoom feature, and how to format an SD card. If we were to start filming this week I'm sure we would have wasted a long time trying to figure out how the camera works, so really I deem this a successful week.

At the beginning of the week some of us went and did a recce, finding the locations we need. It did not take long, as most of our locations are in the university. We were able to find all of the locations we needed, including: a car park, a large lift, a suitable hallway, and a lecture room. After this recce we decided to arrange a day later in the week to start filming. Unfortunately, there were complications this week, as the group member who is to play the janitor did not show up. We were unable to get a hold of him, so we could not get any filming done. We considered other alternate scenes, but the eponymous janitor is required for all of them. Therefore, we have rescheduled for next week.

The start of this week my group and I met to script read together. We each took a character from the script and went through it together. This was very helpful, leading to us finding quite a few mistakes made within the script- such as spelling errors, and character name mix ups. After we read the script together we then started thinking about character development, because at this point students had no personality traits or description, unlike the janitor. Therefore, we began to think about the personality of each student within our story. This will prove to be very useful when it comes time for us to act. Later that day, I went home and made several corrections to the script. Towards the end of the week one of the group members and I went shopping in search of props. We had the script, and highlighted everything from that we needed, and additionally added costumes to the prop list. We managed to buy most of the items on the prop list- some examples being: rope, tool belt, fake b...