Sunday, 7 February 2016

Filming Journal

Filming date: 09/01/2016

Firstly, everyone agreed it would be a good idea to run through exactly what was going to happen during the day. This entailed running through the screenplay, storyboard and shot-list not only with the rest of the production team but with the actors as well, as this was key when considering time management and the battery of the camera. During this process as a group we changed a few things in terms of shots etc. due to having lots of feedback from the actors and also from just running through the storyboards with the entire team on set helped us open our minds up to better and more effective shots/angles than previously planned.

After this we decided to go outside and set up to start filming the various establishing shots. We did this because we needed to film them before it got dark and also it looked as though it was going to start raining later on in the day, which would stop us from filming and we wanted to get all the filming done in one day. We filmed various panning shots of the house and of Phoebe walking up the path through the door. We had an issue with the tripod when we were trying to film the panning shot of the house and it took us a while to get used to working with it as we were all unexperienced with this piece of unknown equipment. We eventually worked out how to successfully tighten the camera onto the tripod and use it properly. We also needed to re-film some of the shots of Phoebe walking up the path as some we out of focus and shaky. We also attached the microphone and used this to pic up the diegetic sound of each shot.

Once all of the establishing shots were filmed we moved onto filming the dialog scenes. For Daniel's scene we simply set the camera up in the corner in-front of him on the tripod as there was no panning needed. We discussed lighting as a team and decided that a lamp on the desk looked much better than having the main ceiling light on. After we filmed Daniel's scene we moved onto the clip where Alexandra comes in. We went straight into filming this shot because we needed the camera to be in the exact same place. Again, this shot required little skill because the tripod and camera were already set up. The only thing we needed to do was make sure that only Alex's body was visible and not her face (enigma element). We then moved on to filming the close-up shot of Phoebe ringing Daniel's phone.

However, when we moved onto to Phoebe's dialog scene it took us a lot of takes to finally get the shot we wanted. I was in charge of filming this scene and so I set up the camera in the front corner of the room facing the bed (where she would be sitting). The plan was that I would track Phoebe as she walked into the room but the tripod was quite stiff and I could not keep up with Phoebe as she walked over to the bed. We shot this around three times until I tried something new. I started to pan before Phoebe entered the room and managed to make the tripod stop smoothly enough for her to continue on with the scene. This was effective because we were finally happy with the panning shot and the cuts were clean and smooth, which made the whole piece look very professional.
The last shots we filmed was the shot where Phoebe walked up the stairs and when she came through the door and took her coat off. We had to discuss the correct angle for the stairs shot as originally it was going to be a pan shot through the banister poles but we decided after trying to film the shot in that way that it would be best to go with a simple stationary shot facing Phoebe. We chose this because we would have had two big panning shots next to each other and we thought the opening had too much movement and it looked too messy.

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