Shoot Day

Shoot One

The Shoot in Guildford went really well, we did a shot of the club sign tilting down showing Lottie Putting her jacket on coming out of the club and looking for a cab.

We did a shot of a cab driving away from her and the unlicensed cab pulling up and her getting in. We then did a shot from another angle when Lottie is walking towards the camera and we see the black cab and unlicensed cab pulling up again.

After that we did a shot through the window of the unlicensed cab as Lottie gets in it. These shots went really well for us but it was difficult as there were a lot of people walking past. It was also hard as we didn’t have a lot of time so we were rushed. This was my first time using a camera out in a town filming and there were a few inconveniences that I didn’t really think about before shooting i.e. the sound of the road, the traffic outside the club and getting the taxi to pull up on time. We could have used a better form of communication i.e. walky-talky’s to get everything coming at the correct time and making sure that people were not getting in the way of the camera.

Shoot two

On the second shoot day we filmed outside, it was raining which was great for our film as that was what was planned as we needed to make it look like the car was moving, it also adds to the scary effect of a thriller. We set up the lights with a red film over them and each took it in turns to move them so it gave the effect of cars driving past. We set up the white balance and focus after placing the camera on the tripod and than began shooting.  We started by doing a close up of Lottie’s face showing her reactions and showing how she feels when she finds out what really is going on. I was on the camera, we had Nat and Patch moving the lights and holding the microphone in position for the shot.

 

We did the first shot twice trying to get the correct shadow and effect of cars driving past. The second shot was through the windscreen of the car showing Simon looking back at Lottie and showing the darkness of the car to create the eerie emotion of our film. We had the shot from the front seeing both Simon and Lottie's faces as they are driving along with the windscreen wipers going this time patch was on camera and I was holding the door shut so it didn't open when Lottie tried to get out of the car.

We see Simon look into the rear view mirror which we later took a shot of as he looks into it. We then took a close up of Simon driving to show that he is on edge and has something else on his mind which I was directing and we took a shot of Lottie’s phone to show her trying to call the police to show how scared she’s getting, her ID and bracelet to show that Simon has been stalking her (which was a point of view shot) and Simon’s eyes in the rear view mirror to show that he is looking back at her and something strange is going on.

I chose Lottie as she looked innocent and attractive which I feel is the type of woman that a stalker would go for. I wanted the behind story to be that Simon stalks red headed girls so she was the perfect choice. We had her phone, ID and Bracelet to add to the story and to show that he has been following her for a while to continue with the strange atmosphere. We chose Simon as he could drive and plays the stalker very well. Lottie was wearing a black Jump Suite with black tights and heals as she was just coming out of a club and looks more street wise when she is looking for a taxi. She is carrying a black bag and is wearing natural makeup. She is looking like this to make her look attractive as that is why Simon is following her.

We also did a shot of lotties point of view when she is seeing Simon handing over her ID, we did this shot because we wanted the audience to feel how she would in this position, we decided that placing the audience in Lottie's shoes would allow them to begin to attach themselves to her.

We had lights with a red film over them to create the effect of other cars driving past, we moved them from side to side to create movement and the sense that they were traveling from a town to the country, as well as the lights reflecting off the rain on the windows. We filmed in the dark to create the typical sense of a thriller which helped the story build up to its final effect. I think that our lighting really worked as the viewer wouldn’t be able to tell that the car wasn’t moving and it successfully created the effect of the car passing other cars and street lights.

 

We all had a go at everything, Camera work, Directing, Moving the Lights and sorting the sound. I feel that we equally shared out the jobs and all managed to shoot something and all played a descent part in making the film sequence. I enjoyed being on the camera and directing shots as I felt I progressed strongly in those departments and feel that I have learned a lot more about using the camera and general skills about directing and bringing the team together as a group.

We have the diegetic, synchronous sound of rain hitting the car down which I feel gives a sense on loneliness and creates the atmosphere for what is going to happen next, also there is the synchronous sound of the street traffic . There is the diegetic sounds of them talking, which is the ambient sounds on the shoot day. There is also the sound of the doors slamming which is non diegetic.