Filming Schedule

Storyboard

This is our storyboard made by beatrice

Self reflection: The storyboard beatrice drew really helped us is having the picture in mind for what to record, it really helped with poses and shots that needs to be used. In result the process of our shooting is easier as we have a clear idea of how we want the crime documentary to go.

behind the scenes

This is my behind the scenes for the crime documentary.

Day 1 (22 August 2024)

On this day, Regine decided to capture an establishing shot of the school for the opening scene. I was not present for this, as it was a straightforward shot that did not require additional assistance. (Taken from Beatrice's post)

I was also not present on this as we do not need the full team for the establishing shots

This was our very first take! we took a long time to set up, lighting and angles because we are still getting used to it. However, after awhile we managed to get a short clip for the nurses interview, it was pretty exciting starting out new project. 

Day 2 (23 August 2024)

This was the situation the first time we were shooting, i was the one in the black shirt and my friends were still getting hang of the shooting, and we didn't practice but we immediately.

One of our problems is the lighting and sound, this is as the room is not very sunny and dim in the camera. It was also hard for our cameraman Aurelia to focus the camera, since it was our very first take it takes us longer to get the hang of everything. Regina was our main director as she was the one who directed the angles. Beatrice took pictures for the behind the scenes and I was also the director there beside Devashya who helped us as the clapper.

Originally we had Ms. Laras as our actor but as she was busy teaching an elective, Ms. Permata stood in for her. Despite the sudden change she did excellently anyways and was an amazing actor. She was really nice to work with. The orange text was taken from Aurelia's blog for additional information. 

Day 3 (30 August 2024)

This was our first shot with the investigator Mr Bram, where we tried to do it in the classroom. However, to prevent echoes and for different mise en scene to differentiate the investigator and the student's interview, we decided to switch into the lab classroom.

As it was seen here, the lab classroom is a great mis en scene for the interview as it looks more formal for the investigator. Not only that, it was more suitable for the shot.

At this time, Beatrice couldn't attend as she have after school lessons so we were only group of 3. Regine was helping Mr bram direct while I was the clapper and Aurelia as the cameraman. 

The last picture was taken using timer as it is more clear to take shot of the full room.

Day 4 (02 September 2024)

This was taken from beatrice's blog, as i couldn't attend due to an after school with teachers. However I came at the very last to check up on how they are doing. 

Interview scene with perpetrator's friend, with Devasya as the actor.

Re-enactment scene, with Regine as the actress.

On the fourth day, we filmed the perpetrator's friend's scene. Initially, we attempted to shoot the interview in the classroom, as outlined in the storyboard. However, we faced challenges with the lighting, which was too bright for the uneasy and tense atmosphere we aimed to create, and the sound echoed significantly. We tried to resolve the lighting issue by turning off the lights and relying on natural light from the curtains (one of which was broken), as well as adding flash from our phones. This proved difficult as there were only three of us during filming—Regine, the creative director, guiding the actor’s performance, Aurel as the cameramen, and myself managing the mise-en-scène and taking behind-the-scenes photos. I also had to hold the broken curtain to maintain consistent lighting, which limited my ability to capture production photos.

As a result, we decided to change the filming location to the corridor to see if it would yield better results. Since we filmed during dismissal, there were few distractions. We experimented with various camera angles and movements, such as profile shots, back shots, and zooms. This change proved beneficial, as it allowed us to conceal the phone used as a microphone from the camera’s view. Regine suggested opening the unlocked lockers to visually connote rebellion (representing the act of revenge) and symbolize a chaotic, poorly-managed school environment. We were satisfied with the results, though we will finalize the chosen scenes during the editing process.

Since we had extra time, we decided to film the re-enactment on the same day to stay on schedule. We shot this scene in front of the school’s clinic, as we wanted to depict the student being poisoned after leaving the clinic, making it easier for the audience to understand the narrative and cast suspicion on the nurse. We also filmed inside the clinic, where I acted as the perpetrator, tampering with the medicine. The process was efficient since the actresses were within our team, allowing us to communicate clearly and execute the scene exactly as envisioned.

Day 5 (03 September 2024)

I remember that Mr bram was in a hurry, so we did the shots very quickly. After Mr Bram changed his shirt, we went shooting. However the class we needed to use it in (lab classroom was filled with students, so we decided to use the classroom to make it look like his work place. Another problem occurred is that Mr Bram haven't fully memorized the script, but luckily we managed to get some shots done and he memorized the script in some time, encountering our problem. 

Since Aurelia and Regine are in the same class, they had some free time on PE which they used to film the other students scene for the interview. However Kanaya was sick and she was replaced which we could have waited but the due is very near so we didn't wanna risk it. The issues i know from them while shooting is that since its break time, then its very noisy as there is many people around. 

Location Scout and risk assessment

Location: Cafeteria

Purpose of this shot: To show when the food poisoning is happening (while the students are having lunch)

Media language: Long shot to show the situation of the students choking, feeling nauseous and in bad condition. Close up shot can be used to show the food that has been poisoned. 

Pros: matches the settings intended to be used

Cons: very noisy, many people around

Alternatives: cafes outside of canteen

Risk assessment

Potential hazard:  Natural disaster (tsunami, earthquake), many tables and chairs, utensils. 

Evaluate risks: To practice safety in natural disaster to save time if a natural disaster occurs, follow safety evacuation. Be careful with surroundings.

Control measure: Give procedures to ensure safety and success of the project.
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Location: Clinic

Purpose of this shot: Showing the medecine being contaminated due to the nurses tampering with them

Media language: Close up shot of expressions of nurses and the medecine

Pros:          

Cons: 

Alternatives: Hospitals

Risk assessment

Potential hazard:  Many dangerous objects in the clinic that needs to be handled carefully

Evaluate risks: Being careful with surroundings and equipments, making sure we are careful while filming

Control measure: Give procedures to ensure safety and success of the project.

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Location: Classroom

Purpose of this shot: Showing the victims starting to feel sick

Media language: Close up shot of expressions of victims and teachers

Pros: big room, looks like in school n classroom which makes it looks more professional 

Cons: noisy, might be occupied, audio quality is bad because of the echo

Alternatives: Music room as it has noise reduction

Risk assessment

Potential hazard:  Many tables, chairs, stationeries

Evaluate risks: Being careful with surroundings and equipments, making sure we are careful while filming

Control measure: Give procedures to ensure safety and success of the project.

Self reflection: This was my location scout and risk assessment before but I felt like it wasnt so good as it lack detail and not in depth, so I took regine's assessment and location scout as it is way better then how I can explain it.

This is taken from Regine's blog

Clinic

Purpose of this shot: Interview location for nurse, reenactment of student tampering with medication as well as victim falling ill.

Pros: 

- Often quiet by the end of the day as most students already went home.

- We're able to request the room to be occupied during the filming process with permission

from clinic staff/teachers, allowing us to have privacy and increase the succession of

getting the perfect footage as there is no disturbance.

- Helps to add depth to the mise-en-scene by visually reinforcing the medical theme.

- provides a sense of verisimilitude (realism)

- Heightening dramatic tension by using the contrast between the dark subject

matter (crime) and the sterile clinic.

Cons: 

- The clinical background may sometimes divert attention from the nurse's interview if

there's an excess medical equipment in the background.

- Overreliance on clinical setting can lead to visual monotony, reducing the overall impact

of the scene.

- Strong echo is likely to occur as it is a small, enclosed room. 

- Concerns about cleanliness and safety > the clinic might not be in optimal condition 

after filming.

Alternatives: 

Hospitals or clinics > Although the location is related to our documentary, it would be difficult/nearly impossible to gain permission to film and meddle with the medication in hospitals as it may not be appropiate nor permitted by staff. 

Since we have confirmed that the school's clinic will be available, we didn't give much thought to other options. However, if the clinic becomes unavailable, alternatives such as classroom or corridors could be considered as back up locations. 

Risk Assessment

Potential hazard:  

- Charging cables and cable extender on the floor.

- Lots of medical equipment and tools that may be dangerous. 

Evaluate risks: 

- Medicine being misplaced : Since we have a scene involving the re-enactment of the perpetrator tampering with / taking out the medicine, there is a risk that the medicine could be misplaced when returned to the storage if it's not properly checked. 

- Tripping hazards : Since the clinic is a rather small room and there were charging cables on the floor as well as cable extender for the computers in the clinic, people might accidentally trip and fall if they aren't looking properly. 

Control Measure: 

- Ensure careful handling and watch back the video recording or memorize which part of the storage was the medicine taken from to avoid any mix-ups or errors to the medicine's placement. Additionally, any handling of any medical equipment should only be done under adult supervision or permission.

- We need to be extra cautious of our surroundings to avoid the risk of tripping over any objects or equipment that may be lying around the clinic during filming. Proper awareness will help prevent accidents and ensure a smooth shoot.

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Location: Classroom

Purpose of this shot: Interview location for student and investigator > reinforce the narrative within the documentary. It also enhances the realism of the investigation process.

Pros: 

- It is an accurate depiction of a school setting. 

- Enhances the mise-en-scene by visually representing the visually representing the school's authority, adding the depth to the narrative.

- The classroom symbolizes order and control, which may emphasize the investigator's

role in restoring justice in a chaotic situation

Cons:

- Classroom may be occupied even after school thus may require us to find empty

classrooms or following the class' schedule prior to filming. 

- The setting might not fully align with the medical aspects of the crime which makes it

feel disconnected from the focus on the clinic.

- Noise and echo from closed rooms.

Alternatives: 

- Music room can be a good alternative because it offers less echo since there is sound absorption panels that line the room's wall. However, it may be hard to schedule the shoot there because it is often occupied even after school hours for band practice.

- Hallways can be used to provide interesting and unique mise-en-scene. However, it may be quite hard as students often walks around and it would be difficult to control them during the shoot.

Risk Assessment

Potential hazard:  

- Classrooms can be cluttered with desks, chairs, and other objects which can limit camera placement and movements > may restrict the use of certain camera angles, making it difficult to frame shots effectively.

- Having charging cables, extender, and other equipment lying on the classroom's floor.

Evaluate risks: 

- Background distractions : Cluttered settings may lead to unintended background

distractions which can result in poor visual clarity.

- Tripping hazards and broken equipment : If someone trips, it could lead to injury or

damage to expensive equipment like cameras, phone or tab. This will lead to production delays, putting the project off schedule and over budget.

Control measure: 

- Conduct a thorough mise-en-scene analysis of the classroom by removing / rearranging distracting objects to create a cleaner, neutral background. 

- Route cables along the edges of the room where possible, keeping them out of walkways to avoid trips. This will maintain a safe mise-en-scene, allowing us to move around easier.

- Rearrange the classroom layout to create a controlled mise-en-scene. Create space for

camera movement by clearing unnecessary furniture or props.

Research

This is my 5 research for documentaries.

The final attack on Wembley, (2024)

Self reflection: This documentary would be categorized as sports documentary as it talks about a football match, the target Audience would be sports fans (people who are interested in football) as people with interest in sports would more likely to be interested in what id happening behind the sport. The conventions followed were the suspenseful music as a lot of documentaries use those types of music. Which is created using camera angle such as tracking, pan, long shot(to show the mess), close up for interviews. Sounds that this documentary use is suspenseful music. Mis en scene shown from the documentary is the place, glasses, mess, ect. I find the interviews to scene inspiring, I might use that for my project.

Worst roommate ever, (2022)

The sub genre of this documentary is a crime documentary which was targeted for adults as it was more mature, dark and heavy. This documentary follows the convention of crime documentaries as it uses lots of discordant sound, mis en scene is very dark, lots of red (usually converted as blood or danger). Suspense is created from the sound which uses discordant sound alot and mis en scene that is really dark. I find the scene where they show pictures of the best friends inspiring as it creates the question of how she can do that to her own best friend which makes the killer represented as cruel, evil.

"Carmel: Who Killed Maria Marta?", (2020)

This is the trailer for the movie "Carmel: Who Killed Maria Marta?" 

The crime documentary "Carmel: Who Killed Maria Marta?" was created in 2020. They used an old picture of her in a frame which was rusty which is connoted as old, long ago. This crime documentary was from a real life crime from 18 years ago so it is very long ago.  In the background there was also pictures of guns and pictures of her and her husband which audience can assume that the husband killed her using a gun. This also makes the audience wonder why he would do such thing which adds mystery into the story. The font is very neat and organized, which really matches the theme.

this was another old picture of her, she was portrayed as innocent which is why they used pictures of her that are calm and not intimidating to make the audience feel bad for her and engaging more. 

This was an interview session, the interview was made to be quite casual as seen on the informal sofa, in the house and the guy smoking. This makes the audience feels the casualness in the interview.

Self reflection: This documentary would be categorized as crime documentary as it talks about a murder scene, the target Audience would be people interested in mystery as they would be more likely to want to find out what happened in the scene. The conventions followed were the suspenseful music as a lot of documentaries use those types of music for the mystery feeling. 

Which is created using camera angle such as tracking, pan, long shot(to show the mess), close up for interviews. Sounds that this documentary use is suspenseful music. Mis en scene shown from the documentary is the place, glasses, mess, ect. I find the interviews to scene inspiring, I might use that for my project.

Girl in picture, (2022)

The sub-genre of the crime documentary is true crime. The audience that were targeted is people who have interest in crime, mystery and real life situations that are happening in the world. The demographics for the audience targeted is Older people, maybe in Youth to adult age as the contents of the trailer is darker and more mature. The typical conventions used in this trailer is the pictures of victims being placed in the movie, in additional to suspenseful music. They also use alot of red colour which is connoted as danger which confirms the conventions of this genre. It creates suspense using camera angles such as close ups of scenes, pictures of the victim and the situation. This is to show movements to audience, expressions which the audience can understand the situation better. Mis en scene used in this trailer is lots of red in pictures, everything is dim and dark to show the situation as serious and dangerous even clothings were all that and it adds suspense as dark is denoted as scary, dangerous. The sound that is used is music that sounds like heartbeat which they use edit to cut the pictures according to the tempo of the sound. From my research the faster the tempo is, the more suspenseful it is.

I would probably use the edit for my crime documentary because I like how it makes the documentary very exciting to watch and builds suspense very well.

The sub genre of the crime documentary is murder, true crime which targets the audience that are matured and older such as adults which are interested in crime, mystery, has a lot of free time to watch documentaries. The typical conventions used by this crime documentary is the use of dark settings and dim lightings which confirms the conventions used in usual crime documentary. This this crime documentary also confirms the conventions of using interviews, as how most documentaries does. The suspense was created a scene of the corridors where the camera angle from a long shot to a closer shot by tracking which was blurred on purpose for mystery. The expression of the people in there were also captured very well using medium shot as they look scared, terrified and traumatized which would make the audience feel the same way. They use the mis en scene very dim, dirty and dark which confirms what the victims have been explaining and the situation of the hotel was captured using close up shots of running dirty water, making the audience feel disgust. The suspense was created using edits of clips being cut shown of dirty running water. The sound used was minim, not the very suspenseful but it was more informative as it was interview form. 

I like the interview part where they used close up shots to really shot the victim's expression to make the audience feel what the victims are feeling. 

Self reflection: I learned some key differences between crime documentaries and other documentaries such as dark lighting, messy mis en scene (not anything too neat), very minimal use of the colour white and very many music with beats and violins used for creating suspense. Overall im starting to really understand the keys of crime documentaries which i learned for the project. 

My team

 This is my team for the projects:

Regine's link: https://regine-regentsmedia.blogspot.com/ 

Aurelia's link: https://aurel-regentsmedia.blogspot.com/  

Beatrice's link: https://beatrice-regentsmedia.blogspot.com/

This is my team consisting of Beatrice, Regine, Me (sharon), and Aurelia.

Self reflection: This team was not purposely made at first, I just moved back to media class and there was no other group and so I went in their group as a group consist of 4 people. It was nice to work with different people who I don't normally work with. Regina is our editor, Aurelia is our script maker, Beatrice is our storyboard maker and I made the location scouts and help with bits that I can help with. Although we don't always see things the same as I wanted to make a more crime murder documentary, I think our documentary is also a good idea. However i wished that we clicked more so that we can have fun and possibly film something that I am actually really interested in, so that I can contribute more. Honestly, it was hard to contribute as sometimes i felt as if my ideas are not really heard, not only my group usually choose another idea that they prefer better. I think next time i need to find a group with the same ideas and values as its hard to contribute with different perspectives. But they were great teammates, I think we did a great job.

Weekly progress & plan

 This is my weekly progress and plan for TERM 1

Week 1: had my first media class, was introduced to our projects and i think its pretty exciting! (Were making a crime documentary)

Week 2: We did our researches by watching some documentaries about football and crime, there was very obvious difference that i learned and i might use their ideas in my project, we also made our groups for the projects. One of my team aurelia has already got some ideas for our project which we can use for the project.

Week 3: I learned how different regulation can effect the media’s contents such as in china they use doyuin which has regulation where governments can control or punish them for the users content and they also have this regulation where kids below 14 years old will only be able to open the application at 8am - 10pm only for 40 minutes and the contents are also educational. However in Tiktok they have no regulations for time limit, only optional. The US government has a rule in section 230 where the media companies wont be punished for the contents as the governments does not interfere unless it has something to do with copyrights, sex trafficking, ect.

Problem: i dont really know alot about china tiktok
Solution: mr nick teaches us more about the regulations which helps me understand more

To do: find actors, make plots

Week 4: I learned about how media can effect people's opinion for political reasons. My group also continued our ad project which i finished my location scout, my friend regine and aurelia is making the story line plot + script, while beatrice is making storyboard.

Problem : we do not have much time on media to finish our projects 

Solution: we use our time effectively by splitting our works into 4

To do: finish our script and storyboard

Week 5: I learned about representation which is how media represents people. I think that how we can represent people through media really affects how people see. For example for a crime documentary the murderer would be evil, psychotic and those. My friend beatrice also finished her storyboard, regina and aurelia also finished the story line and i finished my location scout. Next we did shooting this week to practice

Problem : Our time is limited as media is only 2 periods which isn't enough to do projects

Solution: We did the project, shooting at lunch or afterschool

To do: practice shoot

Week 6: Our teacher introduced us to critical reflection and how to answer the questions. We were also introduced the dystopian movies in theories. We also finished all our shooting for the documentary and it was pretty fun.

Problem: the critical reflection is not completely done as we haven't fully finish our filming, so we aren't able to analyze as much. We also had some problems in shooting day as we are not sure when to shoot.

Solution: we already made our plan and adjusted for shooting :), we also did the critical reflection after the filming is done to further analyze

To do: we need to edit and make thumbnail and the title for our documentary.

Week 7: We started on editing as we need to finish our documentary more

Problem: the problem was in making the research as we dont have as much done

Solutions: We got time to finish and research more on our class

Todo list: self reflection, editing, thumbnail, team picture, finish up blog, location and risk assessment pictures

Week 8: We did the whole week filled with project lessons as our deadline is by the end of the week.

Problem: Most of us are not done with our blogspots and we needed to be done by this week as the grading closes.

Solutions: We all focuses on this, as it is almost very near

Self reflection: I think that on this term, I should have started earlier on project instead of doing it when the due date is near so that I am able to get more time to get it done. I also think I have tackled the problems here, however would be better if I forecasted the problems in the future so that I can prepare better.