Week Thirty-One

23/05/2022

Today I was filming all day for Sophie's end of year film. Me and the others actors Megan(Playing Eden the sister) and Brooke (Playing the Mum), and also the other film people helping, Josh and Freya. We went to Heartburn and went to Freya's house to film. We did a few scenes in the bedroom and then a few downstairs in the living room. It took a while to set up the lighting and the camera. The scenes we did in the bedroom were when I open the letter that Eden sends to Amelia. And then a few shots of when I find the documents of the divorce papers. When the mum finds out that I know and when Eden knocks our mum out and her grabbing my hand to run away. The scenes we did in the living room where when I had just got back from meeting up with Eden and being a bit conscious about my mum. I think that filming had gone well today, We are now filming on Wednesday from 9-30 to 1 and then again at 9 as we need to film at night. Something I think that could have gone better was the living room scene. I didn't sound as scared or paranoid as I should have been. Next time we film I will ensure to  really think about my emotions. 

24/05/2022

Of-stead were in today. Everyone made sure to constantly look busy, we usually are always doing something but we just wanted to be 100% as we wanted to show them how good our group is! We all did the things we needed to do, so the people with the main roles got in a group with their casts, one cast rehearsed with Kelly one at a time, if they weren't with Kelly they would be going over their lines or rehearsing on their own. Me and the other ensembles got into a group and went over the fun fair scene. There is a part where they are on a roller coaster, so we went through that and made up a coordinated scene.

After going through the fun fair scene, we also had redone the scene where the Johnston's move to the countryside. We have changed it to, the children running on to the stage and doing crazy kid stuff such as cartwheels and Rolly-Polly's, and also Sammy bullying as just like siblings do. We would spot a cow and then chatter chat with the other kids then we would go dance just like Mrs Johnston and then run off the stage. Here is a video of us doing it:

It doesn't look the best as its silent, and also we didn't want to make too much noise as the others were also rehearsing and I didn't want to do a Rolly-Polly as I was scared that we weren't aloud too bad I'll definitely add it in when I know I'm aloud to. Mrs Johnston will also be talking and singing in this scene so it will feel a lot more filled out. Hopefully there will also be some music. After lunch we came back to the studio to have a full run through the Willy Russel showcase. I'm in three scenes of this show, but Two couldn't do theirs today, so I just did Stags and Hens. I felt like it went really well and that I had learnt quite a bit with the improvisation in actions as we haven't added everything in yet. Some feedback that I got was that I sometimes slip out of my Scouse accent, which I'm glad they told me as I thought that I was actually doing quite good. They said that they really liked the connection between mine and my friend Kadie's character. At one point I'm talking about Linda's wedding dress and whilst I'm trying to describe it I'm twisting and turning Bern (Kadie's character) so that I can show it as if it's on her. People said they really liked how it was nice and static at the begging as we were on different levels but towards the end we just sat on the floor talking. We'll have to find something for us to do. I thought we should add a chair that musical theatre are using.

25/05/2022

Today we went back to Freya's house to do some more filming for Sophie's end of year film. I think that today went better than Monday's. I just think that I connected to the character more. I think that I portrayed the fact that she's frustrated and needs space. I've really been enjoying filming as it's taught me a lot more, such as how facial expressions don't have to be as big, I also don't really need to project my voice as much. It also taught me how important camera angles and lighting are! We did a few simple scenes where I'm just sitting or walking somewhere. There was one scene where I had to look through pictures of me and Eden (My "dead" sister) and be super upset and crying, but I just couldn't get myself to start crying or even make my eyes water, and that really annoyed me as when I'm alone or with my friends and family I can easily do it. This is something I want to improve on as if I ever make it into the industry I want to have the talent of being able to cry on demand in front of people in any circumstance. There was a super call scene where the director thought of, which I thought was super cool! I go from sitting to my bed to going over to my desk and brushing my hair, but the camera is angled where you can see me through the mirror. I just thought that was cool. After doing the small non talking scenes, we went straight to the talking scenes. The first one was scene 4, where I come back scared and confused as I thought I just saw Eden. The second scene was scene 11, where I'm about to go meet Eden and my mum wants to take me not knowing I'm about to meet Eden, so I'm just super annoyed and agitated at this point so I kind of snap. I think that we had a good filming day today. 

26/05/2022

Today we were rehearsing again. I missed some things that they ended up fixing up yesterday due to filming so they showed that to me and the other actors who filmed yesterday. They fixed the Marilyn Monroe part by adding a few pieces at the back and with a Mr Johnston. Afterwards me and the other ensemble went to the green screen room to fix up a few scenes. Since we had just seen what they did with the Marilyn Monroe song we wanted to add a bit more to what the ensemble will do, so here is a video I took of what we are now going to do:

After we did this we went back to the dance studio to help out by filling the scenes in with some ensemble. We helped in by being Eddie's friend in the scene where he sees Linda after coming back from University for the Christmas Holidays. We just stood at the back being super snobby and annoyed with the fact that hes taking too long. 

02/06/2022

Its the half term, but today I went out to film for Josh's end of year film. (He is in the film and TV course). He asked me last Tuesday (24th) to be in his as the main character Jane as he's in need of an actor and I felt bad to say no so I just said yes. I do like his script though! I was a little hesitant because I didn't want to take up too much of my time filming when I could be rehearsing. His script is about a group of friends that play the Ouija board. The friends warn Jane that this spirit stuff is real but she doesn't believe them and takes her fingers off the board. She begins to get haunted by a black figured woman and ends up fainting from seeing her again. She wakes up tied up to a tree. She runs away and a guy called Mike saves her. We had to meet at Ropner park which is super far from me so another actress who's playing my friend Izzy in this gave me a lift. I got my normal two busses to college which takes around 1h 45mins, and my friend's mum took us to the park. It was super hard getting to this location which I didn't really find fair as we also didn't get much done, but I do think that it has helped make the scenes look really good as it also fits in well. We filmed around two scenes. The first one being where I get a super bad headache and then see the figured woman. I think that this scene turned out super good! I liked that me and Trinity (Playing Izzy) sat on a slanted tree talking and that all of a sudden I'm in pain and my friend doesn't even notice haha. We then filmed another scene in the exact same place where my friend is asking if I'm listening and me just saying yes but then walking away, because I'm confused on what is happening. We then filmed a scene where I faint, but we didn't record me falling to the ground. Afterwards we had to walk all the way to another woods, which I was unaware was going to happen. They only needed me but my friend had to come with me as her mum is tacking me to my bus stop. It was quite far, but when we got there, we began filming. The director changed the script whilst filming as he didn't have the things he needed. It was super stressful, but I do like how the script has turned out. We filmed me waking up next to a tree. There was supposed to be a creepy evil sinister monster chasing me but we didn't have that so we changed to a possessed person who was also caught by the figured woman. The possessed person chases me until I leave an area he can't enter. I keep running until I bang into Mike. He asks what's wrong and I say nothing and keep running. But now that I've touched Mike I've passed the curse onto him. It was a super stressful day as it took at least an hour figuring out what can actually be filmed. I know it took long because the director just really wants it to turn out good tho!