Deleted scenes/shots and why?

My group and I have decided to take away the zebra-crossing scene because the film opening has to be 2 minutes long and if we include this scene then the opening would extend to more than 2 minutes which is not allowed. I would have liked to include the 180 degree shot which is in the zebra-crossing scene because I am aware that it is a great camera skill to include but unfortunately it is too long for the entire sequence.

 

 

 

 

 

 

My role as Mercy

Brief background on Mercy:

Mercy was Ivory's best friend when they were young. Then she became a bully and bullied Ivory along with other children.

How I had to portray Mercy:

When I was acting as Mercy I was aware of her background story and so I knew that she was the normal character in Karma however she is not as innocent as she appears to be. It's difficult to say that I had to act differently because some scenes were cut out completely from the sequence.

Bedroom scene

I did not have to act in a different way for the audience to connect with Mercy because in that scene the only thing she did was go to bed and wake up from having the nightmare. However, it does give the audience her background story and what she has done in the past. It entitles them

Park scene

Young Mercy has to bully young Ivory to show that they were friends until Mercy started bullying Ivory.

Foley sounds we made for Karma

Photos of group 7 editing

 

The photos below were taken on Monday the 25th of February, they show group 7 at the process of editing Karma. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

 

My experience in editing

The first day of editing was in Dan's lesson, Monday the 25th of February. I was editing with all the members of my group. First of all, we decided to place all the scenes in the correct order.

I came back to edit on Thursday the 29th where I decided to delete the scenes I found were irrelevant or where the shots were too long because they entire sequence was 4 minutes long and therefore had to be reduced to 2 minutes.

Filming

Myself and my group member Andreia started filming 'Karma' on the 14th Feb for the bedroom scene, we experimented with different camera shots and had lots of practise runs so that there was lots of footage to choose the best bits from for our final scene selection. I found this process really fun and interesting to see what filming might be like on a more professional level.

The 15th Feb was our first main filming day and we were able to get a lot done, however it took longer than I expected and was much more complicated than i thought it would be as the final film opening is only going to be 2 minutes long. however in order to get the best quality filming for 'Karma' we had lots of retakes of the same scenes to get them exactly how we wanted. I enjoyed working in a group however it was difficult to keep to everyone's schedules and I learnt a lot about the importance of communication.

On our final day of filming on the 18th we had even more people to keep in check, to stay organised and communicate what the tasks of the day were. This was quite stressful but i think everyone worked well together and helped each other out so our outcome in filming was the best it could be. As we were working with children around the ages of 10, to begin with it was tricky to explain how we wanted their acting to be exactly. But as the day went on the children got more comfortable in their roles and were really professional.

For our film opening we have 4 different settings. one is Andreia's bedroom for the sleeping scene, the second is at the park for the flashbacks, the third is at Alisha's house for the scene where 'Mercy' dreams of 'Ivory' planning to get revenge on her, and the fourth is where 'Mercy' imagines she is walking past 'Ivory' when they are older, but really 'Ivory' is just a figment of her imagination at this point as well as 'Karma'.

The reason I want to re-film and the reason we cannot

As I had stated before in the video, my group and I had forgotten to print off the storyboard and therefore we had missed out on a few camera shots in the park scene. I thought it was best to re-film the bedroom, park and zebra-crossing scene in order to get it right.

I re-filmed the bedroom scene because I felt that little things undermined the bedroom scene. For instance, the red duvet contrasted the green pillow. I know how much the mise en scene is important and if something does not look right then everything else won't either. I also thought that my room was slightly unorganised and had to be tidy so that the audience wouldn't be put off or look at the crowdiness of the room.  And also to give a clear, less crowded look.

Secondly, not all the children in the park scene wore their full school uniform as well as certain shots were not included for instance when younger Ivory walks away from the bullies and walks towards the tree.

Thirdly, when editing I realised that in the zebra-crossing scene where Ivory suddenly dissappears after the car goes past; the car was different and there wasn't a clear shot of a car going past and so the best way was to re-film.

I am aware that it is very late to re-film because Karma is to be handed in on Friday the 8th March as it is the deadline.

Costume and Make-up

When filming the footage for our film opening, we decided to prepare our actors with make-up and specific clothing to make it clear of the ages of the characters, who the characters are and the time/ setting of where they are.

When filming Mercy in the bedroom scene, we chose to have Mercy wearing pyjamas so it is clear that she is in bed, dreaming and therefore it is obvious that the whole opening is a dream of flashbacks.
Mercy also has red nails so this shows an element of danger to her character as she was the bully in the flashbacks.

Ivory is shown in the flashbacks with pale make-up and dark eye shadow under her eyes. We decided to do this because even though she is the victim and is not actually a threat to Mercy in the film, in Mercy's nightmare she believes that Ivory is going to get revenge on her and is therefore seeing her as scary and psychotic.

As the character of Karma is all in Mercy's imagination and not an actual person, I think it is important that through costume and make-up we make this clear to the audience. Karma wore Pale foundation, dark eye liner and also she wore all black clothes (black symbolising danger and death), in order to show that Mercy is seeing Karma as dangerous and threatening.

The children in the flashbacks wore uniform so that it was clear that this is in the character's pasts. the children we used to play Mercy and Ivory's younger selves are my group member Andreia's cousin and Abida's sister, because I think it is important that in our film opening we make it clear that these actresses are playing the same character at different ages. This is why having family members with similar appearances will make this clear to the audience.

Addition to the storyboard

 

After having the children playing and isolating young Ivory behind her, I have decided to have Ivory in the middle of the children going round in a circle and bullying her from her perspective. I decided to have this because I saw it from a youtube clip.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photos of group 7 filming

 

 

Interview with the bullies (actors)

1) Are you currently doing drama at school? If so, how is it going and does today's acting feel any different to your drama lessons? If not, did you enjoy it when you did it?

2) Say 2 things you enjoyed and disliked of today's filming?

3) Was it a challenge to work with people you didn't know before?

4) Would you do this again?

5) Since you were acting as a bully, how did you feel you had to come across

1) "This company came to my school and introduced a drama lesson for a day because we don't get to choose that subject at school. The school gave us the choice to take lessons with the company or not. The Karma filming was different in a way and at the same time it wasn't  because at the company I am put into a group by the instructor and our task is to act out what the instructor says to do and later perform to each other.

 2) Liked: Taking part in it and having fun
Disliked: The weather was very cold! I was quite embarassed at first because I didn't know anyone apart from my friend Phoebe.

3) Not really

4) Yeah because it's fun and a chance to be filmed.

5) I thought I had to come across as mean, selfish, rude and spikeful." Said by Vivian Machado

1) "Yes, it's going really well we are focusing an abundance of our time on suspense techniques and changing our demeanour to fit a persona. furthermore we have also been looking at the the history of drama e.g radio plays, Shakespeare and many more historical attributes towards drama. the acting was different because in class we are explained the success criteria and we have a chance to rehearse what we do to make smoother.

2)I thought that the way it was filmed was an excellent idea because it's new and inventive. on the other hand I though that the acting wasn't that good because everyone bursted out of laughter whenever they did act. furthermore the directing could been a tad bit better. though I did like it when the acting locked in.

3)No not really, because we all introduced ourselves, we all had a good laugh at times and everyone was really friendly. In addition nobody was being introspective.

4)Yes because it's good practice for auditions, it builds your confidence and you get to be in a short movie.

5) I thought we would have to be really aggressive a bit of anger but not too much and you kind of had to look like you enjoyed bullying the person." Said by Dillon Depala

1) "Yes I am currently doing drama at school, I am doing the history of drama. Yes I definitely enjoy drama.

2) Liked: the part where the camera was circling us.
Dislike- having to work with people I don't know and having people watching me while walking past.

3) Yes

4) Yes

5) I came across as very mean."

Said by Rebecca

1)"Sometimes. Today's acting was not different to my drama lessons. Yes, I enjyoed it very much.

2)Liked: Pretending to be a bully.
Disliked: I can't think of 2 dislikes but I didn't like people watching me act.

3) Yes.

4) Yes.

5) Mean."

Said by Danita

1) No I do not do drama and yes i did enjoy playing Ivory.

2) I liked the park and the dogs that were in the park. I disliked the wheather and the time we had to film because we were out in the cold for long.

3) Yes it was hard to work with people i didn't know.

4) No I wouldnt do this again.

5) I was ok with acting as the person who got bullied but I was not very good at acting.  Said by  Nabila Uddin

1) "Yes i do drama at school and yes the acting was different to my drama lesson because in drama we don't actually act. We do drama skills.

2) I liked it because it was was fun. I disliked the walking and the mud.

3) Yes it was challenging to work with people i didnt know before.

4) I wouldnt mind doing it again.

5) I though i acted bad because i didnt put in lots of enegy because i felt shy around the people i didnt know." Said by Sumah Uddin

Mise en scene used in Karma

Mercy

I used pyjamas for the audience to know she is sleeping and to make it  more believable.

The crocs make it believable that she is in a home environment where people are comfortable in what they wear. 

Ivory 

Black eye shadow was used to make the eyes appear dark and sunken by shading beneath them with black eyeshadow.

Black clothes to make her appear negatively.

Karma:

The black/dull colours she wore was to create a dark image for the spirit in figure whom she plays as. Karma reminds me of a scary character, the grim reaper since he is also an embodiment of death.