Unit 9: Characteristics and Contexts in Media and Communication - Task 2.2: Production & Post-Production Diary - Hallmark Christmas Film

 Production

Thursday 3rd December 2020 - Shoot Day 1

Crew:

• Director - Me (Harriet Parvin)
• D.O.P - Amiliyah Ashraf
• Camera Crew - Tom Swales, Kai Speight & Nathan Appleby
• Script Supervisor - Tom Swales
• Set Designers - Kai Speight & Nathan Appleby
• Make-Up Artistes - Stephen Allenden, Paige Goodings & Abigail Sievers

Cast:

• Holly - Sophie Ashcroft
• Grace - Kate Drummond
• Noelle - Izzy Martin
• Staff Members - Magen James & Justin Cromack
• Customers - Josh Durnall, Tamara Mills & Ethan Brown

As this was the first day of filming, I was very nervous about the day ahead as I didn't know if we were going to get all the shots and scenes we needed in time (just before Musical Theatre needed to use the theatre), as well as being very nervous about directing and leading the project as I had not taken the lead on a project in quite some time. Putting my worries aside, I just tried to focus on everything happening in that moment in time and making sure we had everything prepare and ready for filming.

All the cast and crew arrived at college for 9:00 am, as soon as everyone arrived, the actors went to the Make-Up classroom to get their hair and make-up done. Whilst they were getting ready, me and my film crew went to the studio to sort out all the equipment we needed, making sure the camera batteries were fully charged, and made our way to the theatre to start planning and creating the set for the Christmas shop. When we got down there, what was already part of the set was very minimal but would be of great use to us as we needed the shop to look as Christmassy as possible. What was already on-set were a couple of Christmas trees (which definitely needed to be involved in the scene) and a large wreath hung on one of the doors at the back of the theatre. Our main challenge now was setting the theatre up to look like a Christmas shop as believable and realistic as we possibly could. 

First, we started by grabbing some tables from behind our studio and taking them down to the studio, these would be used for the checkout counter, a display of Christmas products/items and a gift-wrapping station (I had mentioned a gift-wrapping station in the first draft of the script but I was unsure we would actually be able to create one). After bringing all the tables we needed down to the theatre, I then went back up the studio to grab all the props I had brought in to set the scene. As Kai and Nathan started to sort all the props and set out, using whatever they could find from our studio and the theatre, me and Amiliyah went to the Make-Up room to see how the actors and make-up artistes were getting along, as well as getting all the actors' signatures for release forms. When me and Amiliyah got to the classroom, we found out that we were an actor short, Sadie was unable to attend filming as she was working and was unable to inform me before the shoot day. Luckily, we had cast Josh the day before and he was able to fill in for Sadie's role. Though it was a shame Sadie was unable to be part of the film, it was probably for the best as we now had a, slightly, smaller cast which ensured everyone's safety on-set. Although we were all in a bubble, it was still better and safer that everyone is socially-distanced whilst on-set, off-set and during filming. Once I had everyone's signatures, Kelly was in the room and said I should have a look through the script and see what we could film without the actors as it was going to take a while for all the actors to get their make-up done soon.

After we spoke to Kelly, me and Amiliyah then went back to the theatre and were absolutely amazed with the set that Kai and Nathan had put together. I had my doubts, at first, about the set as I couldn't visualise how it was going to look or be setup once we got started production, as we weren't really able to go and have a look beforehand as Musical Theatre were doing many performances and rehearsals in the theatre and using all of the space. Although I was unsure about the style of the set, I was now very impressed with Kai and Nathan's work and I was very impressed with how quickly they put it all together. My favourite part was the gift-wrapping station as, I had previously mentioned before, I had written it into the original draft of the script (as well as drawing a gift-wrapping station in my original set design ideas) and both me and Kelly were unsure how we were going to create one, but luckily Kai and Nathan were able to get their way around it and create a very simplistic, yet effective, gift-wrapping station that really added to the setting of the Christmas shop and the scene. I was really happy with what we had and all we needed to do now was sort out the shopping basket Holly carries, which Amiliyah mainly sorted out, and then we would be ready to film (once all the actors were finished getting their hair and make-up done). 

Whilst we were doing a few finishing touches on the set and making sure we had all the necessary and important props we needed, and in place, we then started to have a few problems. First, Ethan came into the theatre telling me he had forgotten his costume at home. I didn't think this would be a problem at first, but seeing what he was wearing at the moment wasn't going to work for the Christmas film. Everyone in the scene, apart from Grace (as she doesn't care for Christmas), needs to look festive and wear festive colours and Ethan was wearing a black tracksuit and trainers, which wasn't going to fit the scene and wasn't Hallmark Channel style. I then told Ethan to try having a look in the costume cupboard which he went and off and did but was unable to find anything that looked Christmassy, not even a parka, duffel or trench coat to put over his own clothes. I then told him to ask if any of the actors had any costume, or coats, they could lend him for the scene, luckily, he was able to get a coat from one of the actors and also found a Santa hat to wear in the scene. Although, the second problem that arose was Kate had finished all of her make-up, but she felt it didn't suit the character and thought that the make-up artistes may have done the wrong style of make-up on her (meaning she thought they used another character's make-up style on her). I did agree with Kate as the make-up did look quite Christmassy, which is the complete opposite of what her character likes, and I looked back at the make-up sketch Abigail did for the character and it looked completely different to what she had originally designed for Grace. We did sort the problem out very quickly as we didn't have time to worry about it, all Kate needed was a slightly darker shade of eyeshadow (as she had red eyeshadow on which implies, she likes Christmas as it's a colour associated with the Christmas season) and a different colour and lighter shade of lipstick, as that was also red. This took no time at all, finished at roughly 11:30 am, and Kate was then ready to start filming some shots. 

Once Kate was ready, Amiliyah, Kai and Nathan then brought all the technical equipment we needed down to the theatre, from the studio, and started to set it all up. They first setup the dolly track, ready for when all the actors were finished with hair and make-up and ready for when we filmed the opening sequence of the film. Once they had finished setting the dolly track up, they then got the the camera setup on the fig-rig, ready to start filming some shots for the second and final scenes of the film with Kate. 

After we got all the equipment setup, and once Kate was ready, we then started to film some shots with Kate. The first few shots we filmed was for the final scene of the film, when Grace comes out of the stockroom to reunite with Holly, pay for all the items and leave the shop. This was very simple, as we just needed a shot of Kate walking out of the "stockroom" door, looking towards Holly and then back down to her phone (seeing the image of my little cousins as the younger versions of Holly and Grace), sending the article to her boss and then walking over to the counter. We got a few different takes of the various shots we needed, making sure we had backups in case one of the shots we took didn't work out or look right in the film. The next, and final, shot we got of Kate was a cutaway shot in the second scene of the film, this is when Holly is at the counter waiting for one of the staff members to serve her and she looks to the back of the shop to see if Grace is almost finished with her phone call to her boss. Originally, we weren't going to have sound with the shot, Kate speaking, as we were only going to have music over the shot, but we thought we would play it safe by filming the shot with sound, hearing Kate speaking to her boss, because when we got to post we could decide whether to have sound or not by either keeping the sound and shot the way it is or cutting the sound out completely. We finished filming all these shots with Kate at around 1:00 pm, and all we needed to do now was wait for the actors to finish getting ready. In the meantime, I asked Sophie and Kate to go over their lines with each other so that they felt prepared for their scenes, once we started filming them.

At around 2:00 pm, an hour after finishing all the shots with Kate, all the actors were now out of hair and make-up, in their costumes and ready to start filming. We first started with the opening sequence of the film as all of the background artists were involved in the beginning. We first started filming the sequence using the fig-rig, where Amiliyah got different shots of the various characters in the scene. First, we got a few shots of Josh looking at different Christmas items on the display at the front of the shop, then moving onto Tamara speaking to Justin at the gift-wrapping and finally Ethan buying some items at the counter from Magen. We would tend to film these shots roughly around ten-fifteen seconds long as we could then determine how long these shots should be in the final cut of the film, once we got to post. After filming those various shots, which didn't take very long to film, Amiliyah and Nathan then setup the camera on the dolly to film the final shot of the opening sequence, just before we are introduced to Holly and Grace. The dolly track shot was very simple but it needed to look right to pull off the shot. What we wanted to do, and achieved, from the shot was we picked up from where we left off from one of the previous shots we had filmed, which was Ethan at the counter paying for his shopping. The camera, now set up on the dolly, would then track Ethan leaving the shop and once he is out of the shot, the camera would then pan around to where he walked from (back towards the counter) and show the shop in its entirety to the audience (this would also be where the title of the film appears). We got the shot done in one take as Amiliyah had operated the camera really well, making the shot look very smooth when she was tracking Ethan and moving the dolly along the track. Looking back on it, I felt we could have possibly done with another shot, for safety, as there was the moment when the dolly stops suddenly and the camera pans to the left, as it looked a bit odd when the camera stopped, paused for a few seconds and then moved again. Although, it would have been better to do another take of this particular shot, we still got a great shot that we would definitely be able to use in the film and I was very happy with the outcome of the shot, as this was probably the toughest shot, we were going film throughout the shoot day. 

Once we finished filming the opening sequence, we then moved onto the following scene where Holly and Grace's characters are introduced to the audience, understanding they are sisters, why they are at the Christmas shop and acknowledging they have a distant and fractured. As we needed a shot of Kate and Sophie walking into the scene, Amiliyah and Nathan setup the camera on the fig-rig again. We were only going to film them walking in and that would be the end of the scene but we ended up filming Kate and Sophie for a bit longer as they started to act out the whole scene. I thought we might as well keep rolling as they were doing a really good job and I loved the way the scene was playing out. It did end once one of them either forgot or slipped-up a line, which was fine, also it was best we stopped there as Amiliyah had been holding the fig-rig for a while and it's a very difficult piece of kit to keep steady whilst recording as the camera weighs the fig-rig down, so we took the camera off of the fig-rig and set it up on a tripod. I stood in the place of where Amiliyah was originally stood with the camera so that we didn't lose the positioning of Kate and Sophie on camera. Once the camera was now on secured onto the tripod, we were able to continue with the scene. We did film the scene from the beginning when Kate and Sophie walk into the shop, having them walk into the frame of the camera. We were able to get a few takes of this scene and they were all great, they had both prepared really well for the film and I gave them very little direction which was great as that meant they understood their characters very well and they delivered their parts brilliantly. 

After we finished filming, we then moved onto the following scene where Holly goes to the counter with all of Grace's shopping and meets Noelle. Unfortunately, we weren't able to have a multiple-camera setup as a few of the other film students were filming their own projects, so we just had to make do with having one camera. The main reason we needed a two-camera setup for the scene is because it is a conversation between Holly and Noelle, with Grace appearing towards the end of the scene, and as Izzy was behind the counter and Sophie was in front of it, it would be difficult to get shots with the two of them in frame together. The only way we were going to be able to film the scene was film one character, either Noelle or Holly, first and once we finished all their part of the scene, we would then have to setup the camera facing the other character and do the whole scene again. So, this was going to take a bit longer but it was the only possible way we could get the scene. We decided to film Izzy first as she was the only person on her side of the counter in the scene, as there are multiple characters who are involved on the other side of the counter (once Josh leaves the shop and Holly goes to the counter, then Grace walks over towards the end of the scene). It was time-consuming to film this scene and we were now running out of time to film in the theatre as Musical Theatre needed it back soon for their rehearsals and performances. 

Once we finished filming all of Izzy's side of the scene, we then moved onto filming Sophie. Our only and biggest problem now was continuity. This was an absolute nightmare as we weren't able to get all the items in the same place of shopping basket as they were before and we weren't able to fix the problem as we were running out of time. We did do our best to place the items in the same, or similar places, as they were once in before. Luckily, that wasn't too noticeable, but what was the biggest problem now was that the items weren't secure in the basket and kept sliding or falling out. So, when filming Sophie had to keep making sure the items wouldn't fall out and started to help Izzy take items out of the basket, which she didn't previously do in the shots that we did when filming Izzy. Continuity was our biggest problem in the scene and we weren't able to get cutaway shots like we wanted, so we could disguise the continuity errors in editing. Now it was going to be very difficult to hide the mistakes with the props when editing but the actors performed beautifully, even if I did make a few mistakes with forgetting to direct them at some points and forgetting to tell them where we were starting from as all I could think about were all of the continuity errors, but they were very patient and professional with me and they were still able to deliver their performances on camera really well. 

After we finished filming the scene, we then got a few shots of Izzy when Noelle has come out of the stockroom and locks Holly and Grace in the room using her magical Christmas powers. We then also got a few shots of her pressing her ear up against the door and listening in on the sisters, whether they were having a confrontation or they were apologising to one another and rekindling their relationship, and filming Noelle's reactions, again, whether it be happy or sad based on the situation of what was happening in the stockroom between the sisters at that point. This didn't take long and they were all brilliant, which meant we could then move onto filming the final scene of the film. 

We first started with the shots without Grace, before she walks out of the stockroom after finishing her article, where Holly is speaking to the two staff members as they continue to wait for Grace. As we were now really running out of time, we then quickly moved onto when Grace walks into frame and pays for her shopping and leaves the shop with Holly. After we finished filming with Kate and Sophie, we then setup the camera to be facing the two staff members, Magen and Justin, in front of the counter where they have finished their shifts for the night and make their way to the stockroom. These shots didn't take long to film as they didn't have sound, well there was one part when Grace comes back to the counter and she says to Holly "Merry Christmas, Holly" and Holly says the same line to Grace (of course changing the Holly to Grace), but Kate and Sophie didn't say each other's character names when they said "Merry Christmas" to each other and we didn't have time to do another take, so we decided we would just make it silent in the edit. We also thought this would be better as we didn't know how long the voiceover of the article at the end would be, so, hopefully, it would be heard over the part where they were both meant to say "Merry Christmas" to one another. 

Now we had our final shot to film and it had to be perfect as we could only do it once. The reason why it had to be perfect was because it involved a very large party popper with a lot of golden confetti contained inside the large tube. The way we filmed this was, as we didn't have sound, I would direct Izzy throughout the scene to do the right movements. The way the shot is meant to play out (and what we successfully achieved), once the two staff members had left the shop and gone into the stockroom, with audiences thinking it's the end of the film, Noelle then pops up, surprisingly, and has one last little trick up her sleeve where she makes herself disappear but leaves a cloud of glitter/confetti behind her. 

Throughout the shot, I was telling Izzy what to do like when she needed to jump up into frame and the actions and movements she needed to do. Whilst we were filming, Tom was sat underneath the tripod with the party popper throughout the shot so that he was ready to set it off once Izzy gave him the cue, which was when she raised her hands and snapped her fingers. As we were making our way through the scene, I wasn't as worried as I was before filming this scene as I was focused only on directing Izzy and making sure she knew what to do. Once it got to the moment the party popper was then set off, it was absolutely terrifying as we didn't realise how load it was going to be, but it looked absolutely amazing as their was confetti everywhere and it filled up the whole frame of the shot. To end a stressful shoot day with a literal bang was the highlight of the day and was probably the best and most entertaining scene we filmed the whole day. 

As that was a wrap, for this shoot day, we then cleaned up the theatre as quickly as possible, surprisingly the confetti didn't take as long as we thought to clean up, taking all of our props, belongings and equipment back up to the studio with us. I thanked all the actors again for being part of filming, as for some actors that was their first and only shoot day on the film, and thanked them for being patient and professional with us, as well as for helping us clean up the theatre. 

Although, we had a very successful shoot day and were able to film, almost, everything we wanted, I still felt very stressed and worried about the project. I overthink anything I have accomplished and only think about the faults, such as not getting the cutaway shots we needed of around the shop and not being able to fix the continuity error as I was worried, we would go over the time limit we had in the theatre. I didn't even think about what we achieved and how well we did it in a restricted amount of time. I also couldn't stop thinking about my directing as I felt I didn't do as well as I could have, whether I was confusing actors with my direction or forgetting to tell the actors what scene we were doing, or starting the shot from again. Although, I was having these anxious thoughts about doing my job wrong, I definitely felt a lot more confident than I ever have when directing a cast and crew as I've become a lot more comfortable with the people I'm working with and I know what I want from the film I am creating. That goes to show I had a great team working with me who were able to calm me down and help me every step of the way and if it wasn't for them, we wouldn't have been able to accomplish everything we created and filmed. Now, that we had one shoot day out of the way, we had one more left and, hopefully, it was going to be a bit smoother than filming today.

Monday 7th December 2020 - Shoot Day 2 (Final Shoot)

Crew:

• Director - Me (Harriet Parvin)
• D.O.P - Amiliyah Ashraf
• Camera Crew - Tom Swales & Kai Speight
• Script Supervisor - Tom Swales
• Set Designers - Me (Harriet Parvin) & Kai Speight
• Make-Up Artistes - Stephen Allenden, Paige Goodings & Abigail Sievers

Cast:

• Holly - Sophie Ashcroft
• Grace - Kate Drummond
• Noelle - Izzy Martin

Me and Amiliyah came in for 9:30 am, as well as our cast, to start setting up the studio to look like a stockroom, whilst Sophie, Kate and Izzy were getting their hair and make-up done in the Make-Up classroom (this was much better for the make-up artistes as they now had less people to get ready). Tom and Kai, who are part of our film crew, had come in earlier as they were needed to film some performances for Musical Theatre and had taken a lot of the equipment we would need for filming. This wasn't a huge problem as me and Amiliyah then had time to setup the studio and we didn't know how long the actors would be in make-up for. So, waiting for Tom and Kai to come back for a little bit, along with the equipment, wasn't a problem. 

Me and Amiliyah started creating the set by moving around some of the items and furniture out of the way of the side fo the studio we would be using as our set and backdrop for the stockroom. After moving everything out of the way, which did take a longer amount of time than we thought it would be to clear the space, we then placed the metal cabinet in the appropriate place and started placing props inside it, to fill the shelves up and to make it look Christmassy with the props we had in the Christmas shop. Once we filled the cabinet up with props, we then started to decorate the cabinet with some of the pictures and posters I had printed out the previous week. This was to make the cabinet look a little less bare and have little hints and Easter eggs of who Noelle is and her context. 

This didn't take me and Amiliyah very long to decorate and setup, I'd say the most difficult part was trying to make the cabinet look like it was full of products, as well as trying to stand up some of the props so that they were visible on camera. Once we finished setting up the cabinet, we then started to sort out the area to the right of the cabinet, which is where the most pivotal part of the film would be taking place, where Holly and Grace finally have a personal and private conversation about their thoughts and feelings for one another and finally rekindle their fragmented relationship. Before Kelly went with Tom and Kai to help film the performances for Musical Theatre, she had given us a load of cardboard boxes to place around the set to help buildup the environment and make it look, somewhat, like a stockroom. 

Once me and Amiliyah finished the set, at around 11:00 am, Sophie, Kate and Izzy were now ready and made their way up to the studio. As we weren't able to film anything yet, as we didn't have any equipment and half of our crew was gone, and finished setting everything up, with time to spare, we decided to practice and rehearse the pivotal scene between Holly and Grace. This took up a lot of the time that we were waiting for Tom and Kai to come back and I think it was very helpful to me, Sophie and Kate as I could now see how the scene was going to play out, on camera, and direct Sophie and Kate on how to improve the scene and how they should perform and deliver their dialogue throughout. We needed to make sure that their acting was going to be emotive and affective as this was the most significant and crucial scene of the entire film. This was also very helpful for Sophie and Kate as they had a bit more time to practice and remember their lines before filming started, as they had been worried the previous week about remembering lines, so getting this time to prepare was perfect for them and helped them familiarise the importance and meaning of the scene in the film.

We didn't realise how long we had waited for Tom and Kai to get back from filming as it was about 1:30 pm when they arrived. As soon as they came into the studio, we started to setup some of the equipment and re-charge batteries for the camera we were going to be using for filming. After having a thirty-minute break, we then got started on filming.

As Izzy was only at the beginning of the first scene (Scene 3) we were filming, where Noelle leads Holly and Grace into the stockroom and tells them where to have a look for a new candle set, we started the shoot with that scene. When we started filming the opening part of the scene, I had only though to use the entrance/exit door to our studio as the stockroom, which didn't look anything like the door from the theatre that we were using as the exterior of the stockroom. Even though the door wasn't right, we still filmed the scene using it, placing the 'Elves at Work' sign on the door. After filming the scene, Kai then said about using the door at the back of the studio that leads onto the balcony where most of the college's tables and chairs are kept. The door to the balcony is a large, wooden door that looked a lot like the one in the theatre, so once Kai spotted the door at the back of the studio, we then setup the equipment in the new area of the studio we would be using as the door to the stockroom. Once we got everything setup, placing the 'Elves at Work' sign on the door and re-positioning the camera and tripod, we then filmed the scene again. 

The only problem we had whilst filming the scene now was the lighting kept making the shot on camera really fuzzy, as the lighting wasn't the best on that side of the studio as it was dark where the door was. We tried to fix the problem by doing anything and everything. We tried setting up our studio lights around with the overheard studio light on, we tried turning the overhead studio light off and leaving the other lights around on, we tried using an LED camera light with the overhead studio light on but it only isolated the faces of the actors and made them look very sinister on camera. At one point, we even tried having Tom stood behind Sophie and Kate with the LED camera light but it wasn't dark enough to hide Tom in the background. Tom did his best to adjust the iris on the camera, to control the amount of light emitted through the lens. Sadly, it did still look quite fuzzy on camera, this would be a problem we would have to try and fix in post-production but, on a positive note, all the actors were now visible on camera. Once we finished filming the scene, it was a wrap for Izzy and she was now able to leave. After Izzy left, we then moved straight onto the rest of the scene where Holly and Grace find the candle set but now discover they are locked in the stockroom, causing the sisters to become agitated with one another and ensuing an argument. I thought this scene was really well-acted and we were able to get a few different takes. The last take we got was probably the best, although, my only issue with the take was that Sophie became very heated in the moment as the character, which was brilliant, but it did cause her to throw the candle set they found onto the ground and walkaway. This meant that the candle set was, again, broken and we didn't have much time to do another take, or film the scene again from another angle (which I would have liked to as we could then see Sophie better). Although these problems had now arisen in the narrative of the story, it was still a really great scene.

Although we were running out of time, we had plenty of time left to film the most significant scene of the entire film, which I have mentioned a few times, previously. This was going to be difficult as we had to film it all in one shot as it was going to be difficult to cut between various takes and make it look the same. We had cutaway shots of Noelle listening in at the door to cut between the shots but we still needed to try, at least, get one perfect take. Before we got onto the conversation between Holly and Grace, we first filmed a few shots of Grace trying to call her boss and Holly's reaction to Grace's annoyance when she is unable to get through to her, as there is no signal in the stockroom which keeps causing the call to cut out. These were really quick to film and we remembered to make sure that there were no continuity errors once we did the next shot and takes that had Sophie and Kate in the same frame, as the shots we filmed continue into the next shot we were filming with the two of them.

It did take us a while to film the next part of the scene as it needed to be perfect, not only did the shot have to look right but the dialogue also needed to be performed well and that no details were missed out. It is a dialogue heavy scene and I knew Sophie and Kate were going to do well as they had been learning the lines all weekend and had time to practice today. The only problems that we had whilst filming were sounds, we kept picking up from outside the studio, we had turned on the 'recording in session' light we have outside the studio so anyone walking by would know we were in the progress of filming, but there was still a lot of noise coming from outside which kept causing us to have to cut a really great take very early. There was particularly a lot of noise coming from the sound room next door as our teachers were editing the Musical Theatre performance they had been filming earlier on today, as well as many doors slamming outside. We were only able to get one shot where Sophie and Kate were able to deliver the whole scene with no interruptions, other than the slight noise of a door slamming (which was something we could fix in post-production). Although it took a while to film the scene and Sophie and Kate were very patient and professional throughout filming, we had finally finished filming the scene. I was quite underwhelmed with the outcome of the scene as some important parts of dialogue were missed out and we didn't have many shots to work with but we did our best and it was something we were going to have to work around in the edit. I was really happy with Sophie and Kate's performance and professionalism throughout the scene and I was really happy with crew helping with the scene, trying to make sure no more interruptions occurred and no more abrupt and loud noises were picked up. 

After we finished the most significant scene of the film, we had a small amount of time to film all the shots for the final scene of the film, where Grace is writing her article on 'The Importance of Christmas'. Before filming Kate's shots, we filmed the last shot with Kate and Sophie together, where Holly leaves Grace in the stockroom to write her article. After filming a few takes, we had now finished all the scenes with Sophie. We then got a few shots of Kate from different angles, sat in the same place where her and Sophie were positioned in the previous scene, of her typing up the article. We then got some shots of Kate getting up from the floor, grabbing her belongings and walking over to the door, ready to leave the shop with her sister. We filmed all of this very quickly, getting all the shots we needed, which were all perfect and finishing in time before having to leave college (as we now have a restricted time schedule in college due to the pandemic).

After another great, yet tough, day of filming, it was now a wrap on the production of the film. My only worry now was editing it all together as we had a few continuity errors, problems with the quality of shots (looking quite fuzzy on camera due to the lighting), as well as the sound quality (with abrupt and interrupting sounds from off-set). Although I had these worries in mind, I think all the cast and crew did an amazing job on the film, especially being able to create a film in the first place was a Christmas miracle in itself, due to the amount of time off we had and the many rules, regulations and restrictions we were under due the coronavirus pandemic. Being able to work with my peers again, in this capacity, was brilliant and to have them around and helping me was amazing and I can't thank them enough for all the hard work they put into bringing the film onto its feet. 

Post-Production

Tuesday 8th December 2020

As soon as me and Amiliyah arrived at college, we made a start on editing the film. We started to edit it in chronological order (from the beginning to the end) which would make the editing process easier as we could then go back to certain scenes and shots and either add in effects, add in or cut shots, improve the sound quality and add music where necessary.

Editing the opening sequence went really well as it was quite easy to piece together the various shots of Customers and Staff Members as the transition from one shot straight to another looked really smooth and natural. 

It was also really happy how the shots using the fig-rig to the shots using the dolly track pieced together really well, as the transition, again, looked very smooth from one shot to the other and didn't cause any continuity problems for us. It would have been bad luck if there was a continuity error with the transition from those shots as we didn't have cutaway shots to place in between, which we originally wanted of the items and decorations in the shop. Luckily, it worked and the transition and shots looked amazing.

The next part of the film we edited, where the audience are introduced to the protagonists, Holly and Grace. This was also another simple scene to piece together as we got a shot of Sophie and Kate walking into the shop using the fig-rig, which then transitioned into the wide shot, using the tripod, of Holly and Grace speaking, or trying to speak, one another in the centre of the shop. We only got a few takes of the scene, that were all filmed in one shot, and the last take we got, the one we used in the film, was the best out of them all. There were a few parts in the take that Amiliyah got using the fig-rig that I would have liked to have used in the film as I thought the acting from Sophie and Kate was really good, but when we tried to go from the shot using the fig-rig to the shot using the tripod, the framing didn't match to the previous shot. So, we thought it would be best to only use the beginning of the fig-rig shot, when Holly and Grace walk into the shop, and then use the tripod shot when they both walk into frame. Even though I would have liked most of the beginning of the scene from the fig-rig shot in the film, it looked much better than what I thought before and I liked the way the scene played out using that final take.

Now, this was where editing started to become tricky for me and Amiliyah. We both already knew, on our first shoot day, after we filmed Scene 2 (where we are introduced to Noelle and Holly expresses her feelings about her sister to her, causing Noelle to try and help the sisters reconcile) that continuity was going to be a huge issue once we got to editing the scene, but we didn't realise how big of an issue and how difficult it was actually going to be. First, we imported the best takes of the scene, from both sides of the counter (whether it was on Izzy or on Sophie and Kate), and then started to piece together the shots as best we could. 

When watching back at what we shot on the day, I didn't realise how bad the continuity (only in this particular scene) looked on-screen. I was very disappointed with the outcome as I thought this would ruin the entirety of the film because, as an editor, you can only see the faults and, believe me, there was a lot of them in this scene and I felt like the audience wouldn't be able to see passed those mistakes. There were just too many problems arising in that scene, luckily, the acting was absolutely spot on from all actors involved, but that still didn't excuse the fact that there were huge continuity errors and blunders visibly seen on-screen. 

Me and Amiliyah then had to stop editing as our classroom was booked by another course, so we had to pause our stressful editing session. Luckily, this gave us time to have a break and go back to it tomorrow, thinking about the possible ways we could try and fix the scene as best as we could. This also gave us time to find Kate and record her voiceovers for the final scene of the film. Sadly, we weren't able to use the recording station to record the voiceovers as our teacher, James, was not in college and he is the only person who is able to access the software. Although, this was inconvenient, we were able to work around this very quickly and find an alternative. We ended up just using my phone to record Kate's voiceovers on the voice memos application. 

At first, it was difficult as we didn't have a good set of earphones with a usable microphone as, when listened back to each take, it sounded very crackly and there was too much noise emphasised on certain letters and words. So, we decided against using the earphones and mic and tried to use the microphone already built into the phone. Our only problem now was that almost every room we went to, that was silent and, possibly, soundproof, there was too much noise overheard in the background. The only place we could find to then record the voiceovers was in doorway, at the back of the studio, that leads to the balcony with many of the college's tables and chairs. This was actually a really good place to record the voiceovers as the two large, wooden doors on either side of the small doorway were able to mask the abrupt and loud noises from outside. We were then able to record the voiceovers, with no interruptions, very quickly. Once we finished the recording the voiceovers, we still weren't able to go back into our classroom to edit. I actually felt a lot better not going back to editing at the moment as I was still very disappointed about the way the film was turning out and taking a breather from editing was a good stress reliever. This would also give me time to think about how we could fix and overcome some of the errors. For the time being, I was just going to leave the film to rest and come back to it tomorrow when I had a clearer mind and had ideas on how to improve the film and its error. 

Wednesday 9th December 2020

Again, as soon as me and Amiliyah arrived at college, we got straight onto editing the film and starting with the dreaded continuity mess of a scene. It took me and Amiliyah almost an hour to piece together the scene and try to work around the continuity errors as best as we possibly could. 

There was no way we were going to hide the continuity errors within the scene as they took up the centre and entirety of the frame. At first it wasn't so bad, the only error was that Sophie had her arm by the shopping basket in the shots on her, as when the scene transitioned to the shots of Izzy, her arm wasn't in the same position as the previous shot.

After that it pretty much went downhill from there, as every shot we had, going back and forth from Sophie and Izzy, there was always a prop out of place, whether a prop was already out of the basket, or still inside it, in one shot and then somewhere else in another, or when Izzy was taking items out of the basket. At one point, which I discussed previously on the first shoot day, was Sophie started to help Izzy get items out of the basket when the camera was on her, as items started to slip and fall out of the basket, but she hadn't been helping Izzy with them when the camera was on Izzy. So, the whole scene was a mess when it came to the continuity errors.

Me and Amiliyah watched through the scene many times, trying to cut some of the shots down to, sort of, fix a continuity error on-screen or adding in more shots between Sophie and Izzy, but there was still no way to disguise the errors, as much as we tried to. I think we did our best, at least, trying to make the transitions look smooth as we also needed to remember to match up dialogue between each shot and each time, we watched the scene back, me and Amiliyah mainly paid attention to Sophie and Izzy and didn't really notice the errors whilst watching. So, hopefully, audiences would be able to do the same, and if they could completely notice the errors (which I think they would), I'd hope they would try and look passed them and understand what was happening in the story and see how talented Izzy and Sophie are because they did absolutely brilliantly in this scene (in the whole film, in fact). 

After, finally, editing the nightmarish scene, we then moved onto piecing together the rest of the film. This did take some time but we were able to finish adding all the shots we needed, making sure they were in the right scenes and made sense. The rest of editing was alright compared to editing the beginning of Scene 2, as we made sure any continuity errors were fixed by adding a few cutaway shots we had filmed or trying our best to make the scene look continuous when various and different shots transitioned from one to the other. We didn't have many issues with continuity after Scene 2 as we had made sure to deal with the problem whilst filming.

I'd say our main problems now were (in Scene 3, where Holly and Grace get locked in the stockroom by Noelle):

• We weren't able to colour correct or fix the issues with lighting and quality of certain shots. For example, on our final shoot day, we were having many problems with lighting as there was either too little or too much light exposed and emitted into the lens of the camera. Tom did try and adjust the iris of the camera, making the shots look slightly better, but the shots still came out looking fuzzy and quite grainy on-screen. 

• 
  We weren't able to find any Premier Pro tutorials online about how to add a magical, fairy dust effect onto a clip. We originally wanted to do this type of effect when Noelle locks Holly and Grace in the stockroom, as we got a shot of Izzy waving her hand around and thought we could have the effect go from her fingers to the lock on the door. Sadly, we were unlucky in finding one and we would now have to rely on sound effects rather than a visual effect.

After finishing editing for the day, when I got back home, I then started to have a look at different copyright free Christmas music we could use in the film. Luckily, there was a lot I found that would suit the film really well, and thinking back to the style of music in Hallmark films, the soundtracks in their films always have twinkly, magical and sentimental music that would generally be associated with the wintery feel of Christmas. So, I was able to find a lot of similar sounding songs on YouTube that would help create an emotive and Christmassy atmosphere in the film. Whilst listening to the various songs on YouTube, I made note of the different songs so me and Amiliyah could listen through the songs together and decide which ones were the best and would be included in the film, as well as the particular moments and scenes they could be played in.  

Thursday 10th December 2020

Me and Amiliyah arrived at college a little bit earlier than when our lesson was meant to be, this was because we wanted to have a bit of extra time to edit the film but we weren't able to go into our classroom and continue editing as another course were having a lesson in the room. So, me and Amiliyah then went to the sound room, next door to the studio, to use the computer in there so I could show her the songs I had found the night before. After we chose the best songs to use in the film, it was now time to go to the classroom and start editing the film.

We mainly worked on editing the sound quality in the film as we had many sound problems throughout the film, whether dialogue was barely audible or ear-piercingly loud. The way I fixed, nearly all, of the sound was by going into the 'Audio' section at the top of the software page. This would then lead me into the 'Audio Track/Mixer' sections on the page, allowing me to adjust the volume levels on different clips of sound, whether it would be adjusting the audio level higher or lower. Luckily, I didn't have an issue adjusting the sound levels and making dialogue clips of sound on various clips natural and sound similar to one another when adjusting different characters dialogue. My only problem, whilst editing the sound was that the classroom was very loud, and when it comes to editing sound you need the environment around you to be silent so you can adjust the audio levels accurately. The problem was that Sam was editing a Musical Theatre performance using the main computer in the room that connects to the interactive whiteboard at the front of the room and the sound was blaring through the speakers, causing great difficulty and loss of patience to adjust the audio of the film correctly. I was able to finally finish editing each and every clip of audio in the film the best I could with the loud distractions, but I knew that I would need to go listen through all the audio once Sam had finished editing, or the following week when we would be coming into finish the film. 

Once all the audio editing was finished, I then watched through the film again to figure out where some of the music me and Amiliyah had chosen should be placed in the film. As I was doing this, Amiliyah then started to download some of the music on her computer. I did notice a few problems when watching back:

• We needed a cutaway scene in between a few of the shots of Sophie and Kate when Holly and Grace are reconciling in the stockroom. We were able to find a few more shots of Noelle, on the other side of the door, listening in on the sister's conversation. This was mainly because we used two different takes of the scene in the film and the change between Kate in one scene to other was very noticeable, so finding a shot to put between the two clips would fix the slight continuity error. 

• The final scene of the film, where Noelle pops up from the bottom of the frame and shows off a little of her Christmas magic. Again, this was a continuity/transition problem as when we were filming the scene, once we filmed the first part, where Magen and Justin, as the Staff Members, leave the shot, somehow the camera was knocked. So, when Izzy popped up into frame, the camera was slightly in the wrong position than in the previous shot. We fixed this problem by simply putting a fade at the end of the shot with Magen and Justin, leaving the screen black for few seconds until Izzy suddenly jumps into the scene. This worked out a lot better as it created an element of surprise in the film, where the audiences think the film is finished but then gets a special surprise when Noelle appears and shows off her magic. 

As Amiliyah was now finished downloading all the music and before we started importing it onto the Premier Pro editing software, we first added some of the titles in film. We were able to find a Christmassy style font quickly called 'Baskerville Old Face', which looked like a type of vintage, Victorian era style of font. We decided we would add the credits the following week as we now needed to add the music into the film and then find sound effects for certain moments. 

We then got all of the music imported onto the software and added it into where ever was appropriate. Once we finished adding in the music, which surprisingly didn't take very long, and adjusting the 'Audio Track/Mixer' levels, mainly lowering it to hear the dialogue as the music is meant to sound like it is coming from within the shop. After editing all the music, again, me and Amiliyah would need to look over this the following week as Sam was still editing the Musical Theatre performance and it was still very loud, me and Amiliyah then had a look at different sound effects online. Luckily, we didn't need that many and there were many sound effects to choose from. Once we found the best sound effects, we then downloaded them, imported them onto Premiere Pro and placed them where it was necessary. For example, we had added the sound of a phone ringing when Grace's boss calls her whilst in the shop and we added a twinkly, magical sound to shots where Noelle is seen using her magical powers. This again didn't take too long and we were now finished with editing for the day. 

The following week, and the only day we would be able to come into college to edit, all we needed to do was add the credits at the end of the film and make a few tweaks and improvements to shots and audio/music. Even though we had fully finished the film yet, I didn't really know how to feel about the edit. I felt like the film didn't have that magical and sentimental Christmas feel like it originally had when I first wrote the story and script and I was actually becoming quite disappointed with what we had. All I could see were the imperfections and faults of the film rather than thinking about what we were able to achieve with all the rules and restrictions put in place whilst filming (due to the pandemic). Now, I was able to have a break from editing and a break from the film, as a whole, to have time to rest and come back with a fresh and better outlook on the film.

Monday 14th December 2020

This was our final day of editing, and at college before the Christmas holidays, and we didn't have much left to do. First, we started by adding in the credits at the end of the film, as well as adding the music that would play during the credits (which was the same as the music at the beginning of the film). Once we finished the credits, me and Amiliyah then watched through the, almost, final cut of the film, which was just over eighteen-minutes in the end. After watching the film all the way through, we then made a few tweaks and improvements to the audio, mainly having to adjust the audio levels of dialogue higher and the music lower. We also made a few cuts to some shots, as well as adding a few more cutaways in some scenes, particularly the pivotal conversation between Holly and Grace.

We were then happy with the new improvements we had made to the film and were finally ready to export it, which took about twenty-minutes. Once we had exported the film, we then showed it to our teacher, Kelly, before sending it over to Sam (who would be uploading the film onto the UFilms Productions YouTube channel). 

I was really nervous for Kelly to watch it as I really wanted her to like it as much as she liked the story and script and as I still was uncertain about the end product, I didn't know what Kelly was going to think about the film once she had watched it all. Throughout the eighteen-minutes of watching the film, as Kelly had put it on the interactive whiteboard, all I could feel was nerves, and a little bit of embarrassment, as I really didn't like the final cut of the film. I think this, again, due to my lack of confidence in the film and only seeing the project for its faults. When the film finished, I was then really nervous about what Kelly thought of the final film. Luckily, she really liked, and she liked it that much that she actually cried. This was a huge relief for me, personally, as she is the main person, I want to make proud with what I am able to produce and achieve, whether it's writing a script or directing a project, she has helped me so much over the past couple of years to grow as a person and a filmmaker. Seeing that she was happy with my work and my film was a huge achievement. So, I was just relieved when she said she liked it and that she felt moved by the story, as the purpose of the film is to be emotive and present to audiences that the purpose of Christmas is family and you should cherish them, especially during these harsh times where it is hard for many people to see their families.