Filming

Before we began filming, we discussed the important things that we needed to think about when filming.

- Weather is a concern when filming as it can affect many things so we checked the weather forecast before filming. Firstly, if the weather is different in two shots it can ruin the continuity of the shots. For example if the sun suddenly came out, the brightness would change. Also, if it is windy, the mics can pick up the sound of it which will prevent any dialogue from being heard. It is important to bring an umbrella to protect our equipment if there is unexpected rain. Lastly, weather can drastically change the mood of a shot so we need to be careful about this as it may be too sunny - we will try to adjust the brightness when editing if this is a problem as we want quite moody shots.

- We need to be very well prepared and have our shot lists, storyboards, props, costumes, equipment and schedule with us at all times during filming. If we are not prepared one day it could ruin our filming as we do not have much time to film.
- We need to be aware of sound. Although we plan to have non diegetic music playing for most of our shots, we still need to make sure that we are not speaking while filming the walking shots as we do want the diegetic ambiance in the background. We also need to make sure that we do not film near a busy road when there is dialogue as it might not be heard. Some sound can change the mood of a scene, for example if we heard a child laughing in the middle of an intense shot it would completely change the mood so we need to be careful of this.
- We need to make sure that we have back up footage for every shot just in case we encounter any problems in the edit suite. We have to make sure we don't record over anything by accident and must leave 5 seconds before and after each shot to make sure we do not record into an important beginning or ending of a shot.
- We need to be aware of people around us. If there are any people we do not know in a shot, we have to make sure that they are not doing anything to change the mood of the shot or looking straight at the camera. We also need to be aware of any risks around us as there is always a chance that equipment can be stolen, so we should make sure that no one is ever out filming by themselves and we should never leave anything unattended.
- We need to remember to use a range of camera shots and should be creative with it. We should also remember the 180 degree rule (unless panning around an area) so that things don't switch sides. Also, being careful that the boom mic does not fall into a shot.

Tuesday 9th:
Today we filmed the clock for half an hour so that we could speed it up when editing. We decided to film from 2:00 until 2:30 instead of 1:30 till 2:00. Originally, we were going to film a clock at school but they all looked too simple so I filmed one in my house. We wanted to film quite a stylish clock to go with the mood of our thriller - as the women are quite glamorous, the audience can associate the idea of time passing with them maybe being powerful and impatient. Although we only had to film one shot we had to make sure the lighting was correct - bright enough to see the time but not too bright so that we create the right kind of mood. We also had to make sure the tripod and camera were adjusted correctly so that the shot wasn't at an angle. We had to make sure that there was no way for the camera to wobble because it would be very noticeable, due to the fact that we will be speeding it up when editing.

Wednesday 10th:    

J + S setting the camera up

Today we shot all of our walking shots before the man and woman are meeting at the cafe. We will film our cafe scene tomorrow because we need the photo from the exchanging of the document as a prop, which we filmed later today. We decided to walk around and film loads of different shots of us both walking and didn't stick to our story board as when we got there we could see some opportunities for good shots. We tried to vary our shots but most of them were long shots so that you can see where they our walking. We included some midshots and shots of feet walking but we didn't really like the shots and will decide whether to put them in or not when we edit. We also found better locations to film in:

More photographs from filming:

Me filming our opening shot

Later in the day, after filming our shots for the walking section, we began to film our shots at night where the woman passes the document to the man. We had to do this filming very quickly as we didn't want to film when it was too dark and didn't want there to be a change in lighting as it gets darker very quickly. We filmed near a streetlight so that it would provide effective lighting - showing mystery. Although we had to work quickly, we made sure, by using our shot list and storyboard, that we had every shot a few times and did not rush it.

Sophie in action

Overall, today went very well and we remembered to do multiple takes of each shot and made sure we had a variation of different shot types. 






Thursday 1th:

Today we filmed the shot on the train where the woman 2 is on her way to meet the man. We took a few shots of this to make sure we had backups. We zoomed in by different amounts each time and will make a decision on what shot we will use when we edit. The shots were a bit over exposed so we will fix this when editing by changing the colours. It was quite difficult to set the camera up on the train as it was quite bumpy when the train was moving. In addition, we had to be careful that the train announcements didn't ruin our shots. 
We planned to film outside the cafe for our meeting scene but it was raining. In the shots from yesterday when we filmed them walking to meet, it was sunny. Therefore we could not shoot our cafe scene and plan to either do this tomorrow or book the camera out for next week.

We now had a lot more time to film our e-mailing scenes. We spent some time in the edit suite where the woman would send the e-mail but it took us a long while to discuss the best angles as we didn't like how what we drew in our storyboards anymore. We also couldn't film our shot where the woman was typing as the keyboards in the edit suite have different things on the keys and we were unable to find somewhere with a suitable keyboard In the end, we decided to film our shots from multiple angles and decide the best shot/s in when we edit it. We then went to a classroom to film the man receiving the emails. 

He had a cup of coffee to show that it was morning and you would see daylight from the window. We focused on continuity, to make our action flow using different shots, a lot for this section so we had to be careful about finishing and staring our shots with 5 seconds so we didn't record over any important links.

Friday 12th:
It was raining again today so we returned the camera and arranged to book it again for next week.



Thursday 18th:
Today we filmed our café scene. We had to think about having our costumes and hair exactly the same as last week. The scene was filmed a few times from different angles so that we could edit for a shot, reverse-shot. From one of the angles we filmed from, you could see the reflection of the camera in the window - we took out this shot and added in a high angle shot.


Overall, our filming went very well. Although we all had different ideas, we listened to each other and tried out everything so we could see what worked and what didn't when we get to the editing stage. Although our production schedule didn't go to plan, we managed to find another time to do our last it of filming.