Reflections on Third Shoot- Saturday 13th
Finally, we managed to get all of Barney’s shots done! On Saturday, we mainly focussed on all the street shots, trying to get a variety of shot distances to make it more interesting. We also re-did the establishing shots in a better light. We managed to get a range of shot distances on the Barney’s phone conversation, which was good, and Miss Blackborow gave us some ideas about taking more shots of Barney at the door, maybe CUs of him ringing the doorbell, looking around etc so we experimented with these too.

All these have worked have worked really well, and although the weather was rainy and cold again, we were well prepared for it this time. We remembered the mistakes we had made the last time, with the water smudge on camera and rain sound. To solve these problems we kept cleaning the camera screen to make sure there was no smudge and immediately after the shoot, we re-recorded Barney’s dialogue indoors so the rain sound would not affect it. We also recorded some atmospheric sound when the rain stopped so the sequence seems realistic. We stated filming earlier this time and made sure we worked more efficiently so the street sequence could all be shot in the daylight before it got too dark. This meant that we also had to retake the clock shots changing the time to 5pm rather than 7pm to match with the lighting. I think this shoot was quite successful and we definitely managed to get a lot more variety in our shots.

The Second shoot - Friday 5th
I was really looking forward to our second shoot as we had some good new ideas to work around especially for Laura. Unfortunately although we had to re-shoot all of Barney’s street shots due to a smudge on the camera screen, he was very ill and therefore we had to re-schedule his shots for next Saturday.

However we decided to go ahead with Laura’s shots and I think it went very successfully! We reshot the downstairs corridor shot adding more light and making it more sinister by lighting the candles on the wall. This was very effective. We also re-shot the picking up knife shot adding more light so the knife showed up better. We had a problem of Barney not being there as the silhouette at the door but Alice too his place instead, putting on a black coat and holding the rose.

According to Miss Blackborow’s advice, we added some more shots of Laura in the shower, turning the shower off and stepping out the shower. I think all of these worked well and will add to the build-up and help introduce the character more. We will replace the pan of the dressing table with this as it will work better for continuity and use the pan later on.

I am looking forward to capturing these new shots as it will be interesting to see how the cross-cutting works and I’m sure the better lighting will improve the quality of our opening sequence.

The Real Shoot
Saturday was a very productive as well as eventful day for our group! We applied a lot of what we leant from the test shoot to the real shoot and we also learnt a lot of knew things (like don’t forget the house keys or you will get locked outside in the wet and cold). I was very pleased with it as it seemed to all come together since the test shoot with the final actors and props and looked much more promising as a whole. We were better organised with our shooting script and finalised storyboard and knew exactly what we were doing and when. We even planned our breaks, and breaks for actors whilst we set up other things. Overall, I thought it was a great success although we were faced by quite a few problems. Here is a summary:

Things that went well

-Perfect actors-brilliant acting and co-operation
- Park shots look good
-Laura’s make-up (beautiful and scary) and costume
-Mis-en-scene- in kitchen and bedroom looked really good.
-nice photo-frame with realistic looking picture
-better continuity shots
-Laura managed to light the candle perfectly
-the ‘red curtains’ covered up dark sky outside
-We recorded nice shower and tick-ticking sound for sound bridging.
-managed to get a phone with chord.
-OTS of Laura looking at the photo worked well
-Laura’s evil smile at the end
-Barney’s walk with rose (thanks to Mel)
-The phone conversation came to both actors very naturally


Problems Faced
-The weather was definitely a great problem as it was not raining in the fist few park shots but began to rain during the street shots, which may affect continuity. We could not however go back and re-shoot park shots because the park had closed and the lighting outside had also changed quite obviously.
-It also got dark quickly and street lamps switched on which also became a problem, as we had to try to keep them out of shot.
-Sound was a problem as the raining sound on the umbrella protecting the camera equipment could be heard quite loudly.
- The street was also very busy so cars were constantly driving past creating noise and coming in the way of our shots.
-There was also building work going on in the background so a constant drilling sound was present.
-When quality-checking one shot we noticed that an umbrella could be seen in the corner so we had to go out and re-shoot it.

We tried to overcome problems of sound by recording atmosphere of the outside street once the rain had stopped and recording Laura’s footsteps again as the chair we used to track made a lot of noise as well. We were able to solve or get passed most of our problem and i felt the group and actors remained extremely patient and possiive.
throughout the day =)

Overall, apart from the problems faced, I think this shoot went much better than our first and we all had fun together although it was one very long day. Our group worked extremely well together and as there are three of us, we were constantly rotating between the roles of Director, PA and Sound technician so we all got a chance at everything gaining much experience. I am definitely looking forward to capturing the shots tomorrow and I hope it goes well!

My Reflections on the Test Shoot
I found that the test shoot was extremely fun but also very helpful as before, everything looked fine on paper but I wasn’t so confident that the practical would work out as we wanted. As planned, we did our test shoot yesterday (24th November) from 12pm to 8 pm which at first we thought would be much too long, however as we learnt, things take a lot longer than you think. I found that the test shoot was a great success as we learnt a lot from it as it enabled us to visualise the real opening sequence better, seeing in practical terms, what works and what does not work.

We spent around the first 2 hours planning our shots in more detail and I drew up a final storyboard for the test shoot whilst Alice and Mel began to set up the equipment and mis-en-scene, an efficient way of working. We then came up with a shooting script, which we found was very helpful as we did all the outside shots first, then the staircase shots followed by all the kitchen shots, and finally the bedroom and bathroom shots, which seemed like a practical way of doing things. We also decided to go out again to test our street shots in a different light so we can compare and contrast seeing which is better for the final shoot. This was one of the very helpful aspects of the test shoot as we got to experiment with different lighting, angles shots etc and means that after choosing what we like, we will not waste too much time on the actual shooting day.

Things that went well:

-Some nice experimental shots inspiring us to use more interesting ones than the shots we had planned (for example the spooky track and tilts of the guy walking from different angles)
- Mis-en-scene looked really good especially in the kitchen
-nice use of red props
- Mel’s lovely make-up looked good but at the same time scary
-Alice’s House is perfect for film- just as I had imagined it!
- We all really enjoyed ourselves and stayed motivated throughout the day with some Maryland cookies, hot chocolate, coke, hoola hoops and chocolate fingers to keep us going =)


Things I learnt from it:

- An extremely detailed storyboard is essential (especially for parts with continuity)
- Shooting script is very useful
- Practice is need to make my pans smoother
-Filming must be done between 4-5pm because after it gets too dark and the street shots particularly are difficult to see.
- We should plan our time better so we don’t rush towards the end
- Dress up warm for the day of the shoot!!