Hiya! Welcome back! In this research and planning post you will be able to find out what technical equipment we used to shoot our opening sequence. The equipment that we used includes:
Canon 700D camera x2
Tripod x2
Telephoto lens
Rode Microphone
By having a microphone we were able to record our sound in higher quality, making the dialogue of our characters clearer for the audience.
Also by having a telephoto lens we were able to zoom in more on certain shots with the same quality, improving the quality of our shots.
Overall we had a range of equipment available for us to use and with this we were able to ensure that our film was of a high standard.
Hey there! Welcome back to my blog! This post is a rather exciting one as it is about our filming which took place two days ago (25/2/17). In this post you will learn about how our filming went overall, how we planned our set, what happened behind the scenes of filming and more! Enjoy reading! Summary of how it all went: Overall our filming was successful and went well. We all met up at our planned meeting point on time and got to McKenzie's boxing gym for the right time as well. Once we were there we began setting up our camera equipment and positioning it where it was required. Whilst we prepared this equipment, the actors rehearsed their lines for a final time and the different shots which they were needed in. Once everyone had finished their preparation we began filming. In general the whole process of filming ran smoothly and went well throughout the shoot. On the other hand there were a few minor technical problems, for example one of the batteries of the cameras died during filming which was a slight difficulty but luckily, as we had another camera, we were still able to complete our filming on the day. In conclusion, our filming was successful and we worked well together as a group to solve any technical difficulties that we faced. How we could improve: One way in which we could have improved our filming on the day is by taking less time to position our shots. This frequently took a little longer than necessary and meant that we gradually had less and less time to film. Apart from this, we worked well together as a team to solve any minor problems that we encountered.
Now it is Friday we are just one day away from our filming day. We are all ready for tomorrow as we have arranged a meeting place for us all to meet up so that we can all go to the location as a group to save time. The actors also know how to get there and have prepared their costumes that they are going to bring with them and wear during filming. In terms of camera equipment, Lesley has picked up the camera and tripod that we are borrowing from school and is bringing it with her tomorrow. Destinie is doing this as well because she is bring her own camera (for reasons explained in my thirteenth research and planning post). For props, Destinie is bringing the headphones and the actress playing Maya is bringing a gym/equipment bag for her to use during filming. So we are now all set to go for our day of filming tomorrow. Come back again soon to see how it all panned out!
Hello again! Welcome to another research and planning post. In this post I will be talking about our filming arrangements and how our group plan to organise ourselves when it comes to shooting our opening sequence. Enjoy! When our group decided on our exact location we chose a date for shooting our opening sequence. The manager of McKenzie's Boxing Gym gave us the 25/2/17 to film from 2 PM to 6 PM. In terms of our mise-en-scene planning what we need to have on the day of shooting includes... Technical equipment: We are borrowing a camera and tripod from the school but Destinie is also going to bring her own camera and tripod, so if one camera does not appear to work properly or its battery dies, we have a back-up. Additionally, this also means that if we become limited for time we can potentially film different parts of our opening sequence at the same time (provided that the shot only requires one or two characters and not all three). Props: For props our group will not actually need to bring any of our required props to the location. This is because all of the boxing equipment we need is being supplied by our actual filming location and the actress who is playing Maya is bringing the props that she needs to use during filming. Costumes: Like our props, the costumes that we need our actors to wear are being up supplied by themselves and the plan is for them to turn up at the location already in their required costumes. Lighting: Again, like our costumes, for our lighting we are planning just to use the in-built lights of the boxing gym itself to reinforce the natural and everyday feel we want our film to have. We want it to have this feel in order to show the audience how our main character, Maya, may just seem like everyday people training to box a little, but in fact she is going to go on to be a champion boxer which they will learn as the film goes on. As well as this, when it comes to the actual shooting day we are going to go together as a group to ensure that we all get there safely and on time. This will also mean that we all arrive at the same time so we can begin filming quicker. The actors will make their own way there and we will meet them at the venue. Now what we need to do is a test shoot to check that everything is alright before we actually film our opening sequence. For information about our test shoot come back again soon!
Hello there and welcome back! In this post you can read about how our test shoot went, enjoy!
Above you can watch a video show how we experimented with different shots and angles one of our first opening shots. During the beginning of our film we are going to have a shot of someone punching the speedball to give the audience a clear sense that this film is about boxing. When we did our test shoot, for this particular shot we decided to test out different angles and types of shots in order to decide which would be best for our film. The first video shows a steady, consistent and high-angle shot whereas the other video tracks around the actor slightly. These are both interesting shots which we could re-create and use on our actual day of filming.
Here you can watch one of our more experimental shots where we tried a tracking shot. This was our first attempt and it was a very shaky and rather messy shot. However, we have decided that we do want to include a tracking shot in our film because it looks interesting and grabs the audience's attention. Thus when it comes to filming day we will make sure that our tracking shots are less shaky by using the camera on a tripod, and will make them look neater by only travelling in one direction with the camera, as in this shot we filmed in two different directions which made it a confusing and untidy shot.
To the right here you can watch a video showing how we experimented with filming our character of Coach Stiles. This close-up shot shows him in more detail, allowing the audience to gain a wider insight into his character. However, we have decided not to include this type of shot as during filming the punch bag takes up a large amount of the screen and actually covers the actor's face, making it a messy and rather unsuccessful shot.
Overall what we have learnt from our test shoot is what shots look good on screen and allow the audience to connect with the characters and storyline of our film, as well as which shots are not so good and do not represent anything for the audience. For example, although our first attempt at a tracking shot was rather unsuccessful we know what we have to do to improve it and have decided to include a tracking shot in our film as it gives the film a quicker pace, representing the build-up of emotion in the character of Maya during this part of our film. On the other hand, we have also discovered that shots without any characters or action taking place within them are boring and disengage the audience from our film, so we will ensure that all of our shots are interesting and show the interactions between the characters, in order to keep the audience's level of interest in our film high.
Thanks for visiting, come back soon to read about our filming arrangements and how we are going to plan our set. See you later!
Hiya! In this post I will be talking about our final developments for our script, enjoy! For our script, we all worked on this together and we created our final version by using the website Celtx which allows you to create film scripts for free. We were all able to work on this together at the same time when we were not actually together as a group because once you have shared a project with others on Celtx, you can then all make changes together at the same time, no matter where you physically are. What this enabled us to do was then work on the script in our own time, and through online communication we were still able to communicate with each other and recommend changes that we thought should be made. This is our completed script:
As well as this dialogue we have decided to include a voiceover for our film and you can read through the script for this just below:
I hope you have enjoyed reading about our storyboard and script and think that each are well-suited to our opening sequence. See you soon!
So once we had drafted our starboard and script we began putting it all together into final, completed versions. You can see our completed storyboard just below.
This shows all of the different shots that we are going to include in our opening sequence.
When it came to casting we used a website called Star Now which is a website which allows talented actors, musicians, models, dancers, photographers and more to be connected with casting professionals. We looked at various different actors for our film project but eventually decided on these two actors to play Maya and Drew for our film:
Maya will be played by Cqimere Douglas
We chose Cqimere Douglas, aged 22 years old and educated at the BRIT School and Identity School of Acting, to play the role of Maya because she has a distinctive look to make Maya's character more memorable for the audience, making her stand out more as a result. She is also quite a confident and cheeky person which strongly suited Maya's character.
Drew will be played by Hytham Sympa
Coach Stiles will be played by Shakiel Bahia
For Drew, we decided to cast Hytham Sempa, educated at the BRIT School to play this character because he is a confident and bold person, who again had quite a strong look to make Drew stand out more to the audience. Also, Hytham has many years of experience which convinced us that he would be able to play Drew's character to the best that it could be.
When we were doing our location planning and went to look at McKenzie's Boxing Gym, one of the coaches who actually trains people at McKenzie's said that he would be happy to star in our film as Coach Stiles. This is really helpful for us because, as he is in fact an actual boxing coach in everyday life, he has the knowledge and experience of being a boxing coach, making him very well suited to playing our own character of Coach Stiles. But as well as this he will be able to teach our other actors any tips and tricks for boxing as they are not very experienced in boxing.
Now we have planned what props and costumes we need and what location we are going to use we are pretty much ready to film. Come back soon for an update on our final script and storyboard!
In terms of costumes we are only going to use quite simplistic, everyday clothes to give our opening scene a more natural and realistic feel to give a sense that our film is about someone's real life. When deciding what exact costumes our characters should wear, we looked at what people wear to the gym in general. For example:
We also looked at what clothing boxer fighters wear:
As our film project is only shooting the opening sequence of our feature film and we want this to be about the beginning of Maya's story as an aspirational boxer, we have decided for our costumes that we are going to use gym clothes instead of traditional boxer fighting clothing which you can see just above. Later on in our film we will build up to a big fight scene where you see our characters wearing this particular type of clothing to show how our main character, Maya, is really aiming to be a professional boxer. The costumes that we are planning to use for each character are relatively similar; this is an outline of what each character will wear:
Maya: sport leggings, hoodie, waterproof jacket (only when entering the boxing gym)and trainers.
Drew: jogging shorts with sport leggings underneath, vest and trainers.
Coach Stiles: tracksuit bottoms, hoodie/sweatshirt and trainers.
So once we had chosen where to shoot our opening sequence we had to think about what props and costumes we would need for the day of filming. This is a draft list we created when thinking about what props we would need:
Once we had created this list we had to think about where we would get these props and how we would get them to the location when it came to shooting.
For our props, the boxing equipment (speedball, punch bags, boxing gloves and hand wraps) will be supplied by McKenzie's Boxing Gym itself as they said that they would allow us to borrow some of their equipment as props.
Then for the other two remaining props (the gym/equipment bag and the headphones) will be provided by the actress who is going to play Maya.
So this means that our group will not actually need to bring any props for the filming day which makes things easier for ourselves and more practical.
Hello there, welcome back! Our group have now decided on which boxing gym we are going to film our opening sequence at. Keep reading for more information:
When we got together as a group and looked at the different possibilities for our filming location, we decided that as Left Hook boxing Club was in South-East London, this was too far for our group to travel. This left us with Miguel's Boxing Gym and McKenzie's Boxing Fitness. When we phoned up Miguel's Boxing Gym they told us that we would not be able to film there because they could not permit filming on their premises. This meant that we only had two options left.
So we then tried McKenzie's Boxing Fitness. They were very helpful and enthusiastic about our project over the phone and told us that we would be allow to film there. As well as this, they also gave us a date and said that we can film on Saturday 25/2/17 and that if we need another Saturday we can have it. This is perfect for our group as a whole and we have all made sure that we have no plans for this day, just filming.
For our location planning we looked at various different boxing gyms to film at. These are the different places we looked at:
Miguel's Boxing and Fitness Gym:
Miguel's boxing gym is situated in Brixton, South West London and caters for people of all abilities. It would be a good place for us to film our opening sequence because the gym itself is a wide, open space with many punch bags which we will need to use for our filming.
Left Hook Boxing Club:
Established in 1992 by professional boxer Enzo Giordano and amateur boxer Oner Avara, Left hook Boxing Club provides boxing training for abilities; for both recreational and competitive boxers to train and compete. It is located in South East London. As well as this, this particular boxing gym has lots of equipment that we could use for our opening sequence including punch bags, uppercut bags, skipping ropes, medicine balls and more, and it also has boxing ring which we need for our last scene.
Photo of the interior view of Left Hook Boxing Club
McKenzie's Boxing Fitness:
Situated in East Dulwich, London, McKenzie's boxing gym which was founded by Clinton McKenzie, a former boxing champion who represented Great Britain in the 1976 Olympics which took place in Canada. This boxing gym also has a variety of equipment available, such as a range of punch bags, speedballs, cycling machines and it has a boxing ring as well. The range of speedballs available in particular will be very useful for our opening sequence as we have storyboarded our opening shot to be of Maya practicing her technique at a speedball. Here are some photographs of McKenzie's boxing gym:
Overall from this research into various different locations for our opening sequence we have now got three different possible locations for our opening sequence. Come back next time for an update on our location planning!
For our opening sequence we have decided to include only three characters for its entirety. Here is who they are:
Maya Cordero: Features of Maya's personality:
Determined
Tough and strong
Independent
Lonely (due to her father being away much of the time)
Skilled boxer who loves boxing.
Maya is an 18 year-old girl who has a strong passion for boxing and hopes to become a professional boxer one day. As the main character in our opening sequence we chose to make her into a counter-stereotype instead of a traditional stereotype. This is because she is a female character who loves fighting which goes against the typical expectations of the audience that boxing is simply a sport for men only. Consequently, by reversing their traditional expectations, the audience becomes more interested in the film and what is happening in front of them.
Drew Myers:
Features of Drew's personality:
Cheeky
Hard-working
Diligent
Observant
Caring
Passionate boxer
Drew is a nineteen year-old boy who is also a very talented boxer who is typically portrayed in our film as "the perfect one", making him more of a stereotypical character, although this is not necessarily true as the audience later finds out. He comes from a wealthy background but his parents do not approve of his passion for boxing as it is a violent sport. In spite of this Drew continues to box and aims to improve his boxing ability every day he trains.
Coach Stiles:
Features of Coach Stiles' personality:
Motivational
Zealous
Wise and knowledgeable
Good adviser
Pushes people beyond their comfort zones.
Coach Stiles, now in his later thirties, is a European ex-champion boxer who won many world-famous titles during his boxing career. Now retired, he has set up his very own boxing gym to help aspiring boxers reach their absolute best. Two of his youngest clients are Maya and Drew who he constantly pushes to reach their highest potential.
Hi there! Welcome back to another research and planing post! In this post you will learn about our ideas for our script and how we are planning it out. Once we had started to draft our storyboard, we then began to create a a script for our opening sequence. Our ideas for our script have mostly come from how we want to portray our characters and what their personalities are like. As well as this, however, we drafted our script based on the action that we want to happen during our opening scene. For example, as it is a sports/drama film about boxing, we want to have a scene of boxing played out by our actors during the beginning of our script.
Below you can see the pictures of our drafted script:
Now we have drafted our full storyboard and script we can begin completing our final versions of both of these, allowing us to be prepared for our filming day.
Hello again! We now have an update on our plans for our opening sequence as we have started to draft our storyboard and brainstorm our ideas for our project:
For our storyboard what we did was all separately think about different shots for our storyboard and we then created different parts of the storyboard from this. Then we all got together as a group and looked at the sections of the storyboard that each person of our group had created and put it all together, with improvements here and there, into one storyboard for the whole of our opening sequence. Here you can see the part of the storyboard that I drafted:
When we had our storyboard meeting, we did use most of what each member of our group had already created but we also changed some parts here and there. For example, the third shot of the drafted storyboard above was changed into a medium shot of Coach Stiles calling Maya's name in the background, whilst Maya remains in the front of the frame rather than having an extreme close-up of Coach Stiles calling Maya as I planned in my storyboard. The change of this shot was definitely an improvement on our storyboard and we all discussed any changes with each other, in order to make sure that everyone was happy with any changes made and also to see if anyone had any more suggestions for further improvements.
Come back again later to see how we have begun to develop our script!
Hi there! Welcome back to another research and planning post! In this post you will learn about how we have planned out our characters and summaries of what they are going to be like.
Outline of our characters:
Maya Cordero: Maya is our main character for our film and the audience's attention will be centred around her. She is a strong, hard-working and resilient character who has a great talent for boxing but she has also grown up in a damaged household as a teenager as her mother passed away when she was just fourteen.
Drew Myers: Playful yet diligent, Drew is another important character in our film who is a also a gifted boxer. Unlike Maya, he comes from a wealthy and privileged background and is an intelligent and observant person.
Coach Stiles: Coach Stiles is also a significant character in our opening sequence. As an ex-champion boxer he is very knowledgeable about boxing and has many years of experience behind him.
Where did we get our ideas and inspiration for our characters from?
Maya:
When our group got together to brainstorm ideas for what we wanted our characters to be like, we started by researching similar characters in films that had already been made. For Maya we looked at films which included a strong female boxer as the main lead, such as Girlfight (2000) and Million Dollar Baby (2004). Each of these films star a female character who is training to be a professional boxer. In both films this character is represented as a resilient person who wants to defy the expectations of people around her, as they think that women are not good enough to do this. However, both Maggie Fitzgerald and Diane Guzman are portrayed as strong female characters who are determined to be excellent boxers, particularly Diane Guzman who is usually viewed as a trouble-maker by those around her but the audience soon sees she is much more than this and she is actually seen to put those who undermine her in their place.
In regard to our own film, the way in which these characters are portrayed in both of these films is how we want our character of Maya to come across. Our aim as a group is to represent Maya as a resilient, hard-working girl who has a significant passion for fighting and defies the expectations of those around her, just like the main characters in both Girlfight and Million Dollar Baby.
Coach Stiles: When it came to Coach Stiles we decided that we wanted to represent him as more of a stereotype rather than a counter-type like Maya. For this we took inspiration from several different films, including Bleed For This (2016), A League Of Their Own (1992), Remember The Titans (2000) and The Rookie (2002). All of these films have strong coaches who are strict with their trainees but give them positive feedback on how to improve.
From this research we decided as a group that we wanted to represent Coach Stiles in a very similar way to the way in which the coaches in these films were represented. The way in which we are planning to portray Coach Stiles is as how he is someone who pushes people beyond their limits to get the best out of their abilities but also someone who cares about his trainees and gives constructive feedback for improvement.
Drew:
Unlike our other two characters, we came up with Drew's character by ourselves. We did take part of the idea from drama/sports films in general but we came up with Drew's particular personality traits ourselves. From other boxing films we saw that the main character- the boxer- was usually accompanied by their coach and their sexual partner throughout the entirety of the film. Although Drew could have represented Maya's potential boyfriend, we decided not to make this clear during our opening sequence in order to make the audience more intrigued by Drew so that some of their focus would be directed to other characters instead of just Maya.
So there you have a summary of what our characters are going to be like. However, to find out more information about our characters come back again soon for an update on the details of our characters.
