AS MEDIA STUDIES Rachael Crisp

FILMING JOURNAL

 

THERAPIST'S ROOM - 04/11/2014 -

 

Our first filming experience was located in our school's counselling room and filmed after school, in hopes that there would be less background noise and to give ourselves a longer period of time for filming. The footage involved a counsellor and our main male character, Nathan; the scene shows how Nathan is psychologically damaged from the experience he has been through. For filming, we used a Tripod so that shots would be level and takes steady. However, we encountered a numer of problems. For instance, sound disturbances of the cleaner's vacuuming could be heard in our footage, and stopped the atmosphere from seeming clinical and calm. Also, the counsellor's room is small and cramped which limited the shots we were able to carry out. Our shot list involved a two shot to show each character's placement in the room, however the tripod could not be placed at a distance to show both individuals. Therefore, this shot was removed from the shot list.

 

When watching this footage back, we found a number of errors. This included some shots being unlevel. We also were not pleased with our use of setting - the room was cluttered  and as we did not want to disturb the belongings of the counsellor, we did not remove art, files and other unnecessary props. This took away from the quality of the footage and appeared distracting. Furthermore, we found the majority of footage unusable due to disliking the dialogue and action included. As a result, we aimed not to use this footage, but were aware that this could be used if necessary.

 

 

Filming at Verne High Angle Battery was cancelled the day prior due to unforeseen circumstances of vandalism and water damage, meaning that filming next took place on 22/12/2014.

 

 

FARM OUTBUILDING - 22/12/2014

 

This experience involved filming our first shot list of Nathan in the farm outbuilding. We attempted to use a dolly, however due to the floow being uneven the dolly caused footage to be unsteady than handheld footage. Other problems included finding that we did not have enough footage for a 2 minute opening. Our shot list was not thorough by the date of filming, meaning we did not stick strictly to the shot list and tried to add shots whilst filming. This led to some shots being poor and not showing of our technical competency. As well as this, we found that the plot felt empty and unexciting - very little happened meaning that the audience would not be intrigued and on edge to find out what is to happen in the full film.

 

This led to the decision to refilm with an improved shot list and additional props and action. We learnt from our mistake and made sure that our shot list was well thought through and developed with a range of different shots by the date of filming. 

 

 

FARM OUTBUILDING - 11/01/2014

 

As this date was less than a week before the deadline of our rough cut, we were determined to make very few mistakes and strictly follow our shot list, as we would not have the opportunity to film once again. On this occasion, our filming was interrupted midway by a barking dog that would have easily been heard in our footage. Therefore, filming was halted for some time, which led to the issue of an abrupt change in lighting. As a result of this, I had to change the brightness of a number of shots in post production using editing software. Another mistake was missed filming of one shot where Nathan  kneels to the ground. Thankfully, this problem could also be fixed in the editing stage by reversing a different take of Nathan standing up. One change we made whilst in location was to move the photos of previous victims to the bed. This was because when hung from a beam in the ceiling, the pictures turned to show the blank backside. This created problems with filming, as not all images could be seen at the same time and the shot was not effective. Another intention was to record the sound of a creaking door, which is a convention in many horror films to create uneasiness. However, as there was no door opening to make the creak, we adapted the convention to making the camp bed creak.  

 

For titling, we subverted the horror convention of white text on a black background. Instead, we cut out the letters of Hel's Game in a piece of paper and then laminated this. This allowed us to shine a light through the hole and project the title onto the wall. We felt that this subtle approach of showing the title internally in a shot did not take away from the atmosphere or the protagonist in the same way that white text would have.