Shoot Day: Filming

As a group, I felt we all worked very well and balanced each role with no problems and everything was done fairly. I appreciated learning new things on the day and being in control at parts.

Throughout the editing lessons, between my group and I, we balanced the roles out evenly, so there was no confusion and every task was being set fairly. This also allowed us to be more organised, practice everything and this also prevented us from wasting time. For example, I mainly helped cut each clip, helping us to organise and tidy our sequence but also to allow a successful transition and cross cut into the next rush. So we all took turns in witching roles from the director, sound director, camera operator and screen holder. Primarily, I started out being the camera operator, which I thoroughly enjoyed, however I mostly enjoyed being the director as I felt I had control and most understanding when I was this role. We constantly kept changing so it was fair.

After every shot, I took control and wrote it down by drawing an image and detailed the shot we did, so we wouldn’t forget and we had it documented.

Before the shoot started, we prepared ourselves by going through the shot list and scene outline a number of times to reinforce ideas and we also talk our actor Charlie through the scene outline so he had an understanding of what to do. This included talking him through which key he takes, what he says etc.

Before we started shooting, we asked Charlie to do the sequence for a rehearsal and this allowed us to see if we needed to change anything. However, he seemed to of have a successful understanding of what we aimed for, so my group and I felt quite confident without our actor choice and didn’t need to change anything. We started our shoot with a long shot of the room to allow some safe rushes. When the whole group was happy we moved onto more technical shots, such as mid long shots, close ups and extreme close ups. We also tried slow motion shoots, zooms, pans and POV shots as well. If someone was not happy with the footage, we re did the shot for safety and reassurance. After each shot, we had to staple the keys back up onto the ceiling in exactly the same place for our continuity to be successful, although this took some time it was worth it.  Was made a mark on the ceiling so no problems abrupt.

Our timing went well and we didn’t run out of time although we used our time and wisely and successfully and kept filming until we had to stop as we were prepared to work hard and wanted to get the best possible outcome. For example, Charlie had warned us that half way through the day he had to go to a theatre lesson, therefore we used our time wisely and shot all the opening title shots when he was gone. During each title shot of the keys, we purposely made these shots 30 seconds each so we weren’t short of footage and we had safe shots for editing.

Overall throughout the day, my favourite part was learning and trying the shot of the focus pull. I found this shot very trying, as it was a challenge to get the focus exactly where you wished; however, I liked the challenge. I drew the focus pull when Charlie finds the main key, which is a crucial element in our sequence, so I felt I had power at this point. Everyone in my group tried this shot and everyone successfully completed after some shots.

Shoot day: Behind the scenes

I shot some behind the scenes footage on my iPhone of the beginning of our thriller. I captured the director’s and camera operator’s dialogue, including the speech of “Stand by..Standing by…Roll camera…Rolling camera and lastly Action!”

Shoot day: Title Shot Board

During the shoot day, I took charge of noting down a quick, sketched diagram of a title shot we had completed so we wouldn’t repeat this shot and had it documented.

Between my group and I, we filmed about 16 different title shots. For instance, we mostly captured different shots of the keys and light bulbs, including close up shots and extreme close ups.

Our only drawback was sometimes completing a focus pull involving a filament light bulb, as it was difficult to capture a steady and smooth focus. We had to set the camera to a low motion setting because of this. However, this made it easier for us to capture the sharp shot in clear detail and gave us a bit more time to shoot it properly. Due to setting the camera to this setting, we found we only had about three seconds to capture it. We tried many times but I felt it was good and effective practice for other shots.

Each title shot of the keys, we purposely made these shots 30 seconds each so we weren’t short of footage and we had safe shots for editing.

Shoot Day : Drawbacks

Our shoot day all went according to plan and everything turned out successfully as we experimented with lots of different shots, movement, action, etc. However, the only drawback we had was the padlock, as it sometimes fell loose during a take. The padlock came undone as Charlie was moving around the lock a lot and the lock was old so was more prone to become loose. This meant we had to stop the whole of this take and do the padlock up correctly and then do the same take again. The camera operator and the screen holder noticed this in a shot as they had a most accurate view. This wasted some time and some good footage was lost, although we found alternatives and learnt from our mistakes.

Shoot Day: Lighting

On the day, we wanted to be creative with the lighting, so we used extra lighting to show reinforce the idea that it was daylight and so we placed a daylight blue gel in front a basic fresnel light. We positioned this behind the wall, so it could fall towards the padlock of the door; this helped to add shadow to the dark door. We also wanted the actor to get a sense of uplifting, slight positive hope.

We also felt the impression of the room being a cell wasn’t very clear, so we experimented with a metal bar and put it to one side and put a light behind it to allow the bar shadows to project onto the wall inside the confined small room. We wanted it to look like a jail door. However, this didn’t work as the lighting wasn’t strong enough and the sense of claustrophobia was lost so we didn’t use it.