Time Report - Filming in the Set

Last week was very exciting here at Signals as we constructed an amazing futuristic TV Studio gallery in our workshop space! It's taken many weeks for the children at Perryfields Junior School to collect all sorts of recycled bits and bobs and turn them into wall panels and boards for our TV Show gallery. It took two days for the set to be put together and we think the final result looks fantastic!

Four children from the Time Report group were asked to come to Signals on Tues 17th Jan and film some of the last scenes for their film about a news show set in a space station 80 years in the future. The children were Jacob, who plays 'Trent', the ever-exasperated director, James, who plays 'Sparky' our trusty technician and Lewis, whose character 'Max' is our news anchorman. Jack (who is James' twin brother) was also asked to come along and be our camera op for the day and got some great close ups of Sparky tinkering around with the set.

Below are Lewis and Jack who were setting up where Trent the Director would be sitting. We used an old edit suite as the control panel which Trent uses to cue up different clips and adjust sound levels. The idea of using old equipment came from the children who decided that in the future, we will have run out of oil to make plastics. Therefore, all technology will have to be run on old machines that have been upgraded.

The children worked really hard to get all the shots done in time and we all had a lot of fun building and filming in the set. We only have two more sessions of Time Report now to:

• Film any last minute 'pick up shots',
• Record the sound for 'Bubbles' (the pike that lives in the filthy River Thames during the Industrial Revolution)
• Record the sound for the Seagull that lives on the rubbish tip.
• Put together an 'assembly edit' or 'rough cut'
• Complete post production on the green screen sequences, add VFX and SFX

So there's still a lot of work to do!

See you on Tuesday 24th Jan everyone!

Green Screen Test

We recently completed our 8th session of Time Report with children from Perryfields Junior School and filming is now well underway! Last week we posted a video of Craig who is acting the part of the Weather Reporter in our futuristic TV news show. We've been using green screen technology to place the actors into different scenes. We do this by filming the scene against a large green screen and lighting the shot in such a way as to get rid of any shadows. We also have to gaffa tape the green screen so it's really taut, meaning no wrinkles or creases on the green fabric. In post production, we then take out the green background and replace it with video footage or a stock image so it looks like the actor is actually in that scene (though they haven't actually left the classroom!)

We've knocked up a very rough test using the green screen function in iMovie 11 so that you can see how the video we posted last week of Craig as the Weather Reporter might look in the final film (make sure you watch it in 720p). The new version of iMovie makes this so simple to do, we'll be training up our group of young filmmakers so they can do this themselves!

Cool? We think so!

We've also been filming the exterior scenes of the school where our roving Time Reporter Zara (played by Sofia) interviews a school child, Kurt (played by Kurt) about the earth's ecological problems in 2012. Remember, our film is set in 2092 so Zara's costume is made out of left over bits and bobs including a rather fetching hat made of carrier bags.

Time Report - Filming Begins!

Yesterday was our 6th session of our First Light Movies project, 'Time Report' at the Perryfields Junior School in Chelmsford, Essex. We have been working with children from the school to create an exciting film, 'Time Report', that's set in a futuristic TV studio and addresses issues of climate change and pollution.

The children have been working very hard with tutors Emma Curtis and Jane Gull to create the script, storyboard and make all the props and costumes. Yesterday morning was spent painting a giant dinosaur head for Dippy the Diplodocus, finishing off the news desk, sticking rubbish onto costumes and learning lines. Everyone is doing a terrific job of getting into their characters!

The afternoon was spent setting up the green screen and filming all the scenes with our TV news presenter 'Max'. The part is being played by Lewis who did a great job of remembering his lines and acting as a confident, serious news presenter.

The children have also been learning camera and production skills. They were quite surprised by how long it takes to film something and get it right, especially when they'd filmed all the scenes as a wide shot then realised they'd need to film the same scenes all over again, but this time as a mid shot! They also had to problem solve when it came to recording sound as there was a very noisy P.E class going on outside. Sofia and Jacob (pictured below) took it in turns to crouch below the desk and record Lewis speaking by using an H4 Sound Recorder. They also learnt about syncing sound and had lots of fun seeing who could clap the loudest!

We'll be filming more scenes again next week, this time with the Time Reporter (played by Sofia) and Dippy the Diplodocus (played by Sam). We're going to lend our office pot plants to help create a Jurassic landscape against the green screen, plus the school have a volcano we can use too. We'll keep you updated on how things progress with the project, but it's coming together very nicely.

Time Report Session Three

Yesterday, Emma and Lisa completed Session Three with our 'Time Report' film group at the Perryfields Junior School. It was one of our last pre-production sessions with the group, who have been designing how the characters, sets and props should look in their forthcoming film.

Here is a little video we made introducing you to some of the children in our group and their hard work:

This exciting project has been funded by First Light Movies. First Light works with young people from a variety of backgrounds, developing skills in media production. They identify and nurture talented young people and enable them to achieve their potential through targeted training activities. Working closely with industry partners, we are able to offer realistic progression routes for young people to find employment within the creative sector. First Light works with over 5,000 young people aged 5-25 every year providing opportunities to learn the craft of filmmaking from industry professionals (like Signals).