My House and the Campfire

My House and the Campfire

The next big shoot we planned to do was the shots at my house and the camp fire. From AS, we knew how challenging it is to have a full day of filming so we were prepared this time.

Although we needed Hannah to film, she could not make the date we had scheduled, so instead we planned that I would take her dialogue. We felt this would work better to portray the main characters in our trailer rather than confusing the audience.

The people who we planned for the shoot were:

Lizzie (Me)

Daniel

Iain

Sam

Matthew

Clare

Karen 

Before the shooting day, we wrote a script for the day. This was to ensure the cast knew hwta they were going to say.

For the first part of the morning, we needed everyone apart from Sam. 11am was an early start so we decided to film the scene where Eve's mother disappears; this was so the lighting represented morning. Although we filmed our storyboard scenes, we changed slightly and added a few shots. We had a mid-shot where Karen (my mum) walks our of the frame. Then, we separately recorded the sound of a spoon dropping This was so we could edit them together to give the impression that she had vanished and dropped the spoon whilst she disappeared. 

Although we planned to have shot zooming out from the door, we had difficulty due to the glad reflecting the camera in it. Therefore, we got a shot as best as we could and decided that we may cut it later during editing.

After this scene, I went to do Clare's hair and make-up. Since we had a full day of filming, we had to ensure that we did this quickly but to a good standard. For this scene, we decided to add curls to Clare's hair as the locationw as in a house (Haden's group would have time to groom themselves.)

After this, we moved onto the shot of Haden hitting the magazine out of Selene's hand. This took many attempts as we wanted to try different angles, from the magazine flying past the camera, to actually hitting it.

Once this scene was finished, my mum made us all sausage and bacon sandwiches. They filled us up and it gave us time to plan what shot we needed to film next. 

The next scene we chose to shoot was Eve searching for the folder. This shot was done hand-held as we wanted to add movement to our trailer; the Hunger Games (dir.Gary Ross 2012) influenced this.
We decided to film it in the room where we store things as it seemed like a good place to hide a folder. When filming the tracking shot of Eve (me) coming down the stairs, we had many difficulties as I could not stop laughing. We gave Alfie (Matthew) and Michael (Daniel) boxes to carry to suggest that they were gathering items to help them survive, After many attempts, we finally got a few takes where I was not laughing.

Once my scene was shot, we filmed Haden and Selene finding the folder (although this occurs before Eve looks for the folder within the narrative.) Selene (Clare) had the dialogue 'what is it? tell me!'. However, when we filmed it, it sounded very un-natural so we suggested that she only states the interrogative 'what is it?' rather than the imperative 'tell me'.We improvised a few shots and ensured we got the ones we storyboarded filmed.

After this, Sam arrived and we began to set up for the camp fire shots. Before this shot, Iain and Daniel suggested having a camp fire in a wood, however, I felt this was unsafe and possibly against the law so I suggested that we could use my garden. As a safety precaution, I brought two buckets of water to the scene in case anything went wrong.

We dragged some large logs around to sit on and cleared the area of dry leaves. We created a small pit with large stones and added newspaper/paper to the pile. With matches, we lit the fire and ensured that it was contained and a decent size for the shot.

Iain occasionally filmed some hand-held shots of the group whilst we kept the fire from dying. We improvised with other shots such as giving Sam dialogue. We had a shot of Eve reaching over to the other log to comfort Alfie. When framed, it looked as if I was reaching over the fire; this had a semiotic meaning that Eve will would go across something as painful as fire to save her little brother.

Once everything was filmed, we ensured that the fire was completely out and we drowned it with two buckets of water. From this we went to film the shots of Eve and Alfie running up to and slamming the gates shut. This was done very quickly as it was beginning to get very dark and there was not much to consider when filming it.

Iain and Daniel then had an idea. We decided to have Haden and Selene searching for Michael's group in the pitch black with only torches on show.From the influence of the TV series Supernatural, Iain suggested that we had the light shine directly at the camera. We hid upstairs and turned all of the lights off. We experimented with point of view shots and even a scene where the camera was hidden in a wardrobe with me (this shot was unsuccessful.)

Going downstairs, we found a small room in which to film the match scene between Eve and Alfie. This took a few attempts as the camera would not focus and Daniel accidentally turned the light on during the shot.

Finally to finish off our filming day we filmed the sequence that we planned to occur at the beginning of our trailer (the scene where Eve says goodnight to her mum.) By this time we wanted to finish as we had had a long day, however, we carried on and gave our best shot. I changed into some pyjamas and my mum put a dressing gown over her clothes. Once again, I started to laugh onto the scene where I walked in through the door so this took a few takes.
We took many different angles of the same shots as we thought we  could experiment with them in post-production.

Here is a gallery of photos from the day of filming:

Filming Eve's mum disappearing

Filming the Haden and Selene shot

 Filming the scene where Eve looks for the folder

 The Campfire scene

  The goodnight scene between Eve and her mother

The Forest Scene

The Forest Scene

After filming small scenes from our storyboard, we wanted to ensure that we had a large section of it done. Therefore, we decided to organise a day where we could film the forest scene. For our AS work, we only had to manage four members of cast/crew unlike this year where we had a maximum of around thirteen. This became quite a challenge to manage.

The people who could make the shoot were: 

Lizzie (Me)

Iain

Daniel

Clare

Sam

Dan

Kieran

Fiona

Alex

Although the storyboard states that Dan is called Ryan, we originally had his name as Jake, changed during filming and then changed back again later.

The night before shooting, I stayed at Clare's house (Selene) so that I was able to do her sinister hair and make-up on the morning. As for prop's we ended baseball bats, however, we found issues with this. A group of teenagers, running around with baseball bats was certain to attract bad attention, potentially putting us at risk with the law. Therefore, we all agreed beforehand that when we are not filming, the bats are wrapped in many bags and secure in a large bag for safety reasons.

At around 1:00pm we all met at Iain's house (which is not far from Clare's) since his place was closest to the forest. I had to wear minimal make-up like Fiona; Fiona was so dedicated she did not brush her ahir for days to get into the character we wanted Michael's group would be living in the forest so they would look run down.)

With everyone at Iain's house, we all set off to shoot the first scene: the field. I was constantly making sure that we were not trespassing as I had learnt from the car park shooting day. When we arrived we found a problem- thick mud. The field was coated in sticky mud that caused problems for running. I kept falling over and Daniel's shoe flew off at one point. Since we needed the 'bad' group to chase us, we had practice runs. After this, we found the 'bad' group ran faster than the 'good' group so we had to work on this. Moreover, we decided that Haden and Selene should not run/chase Michael's group. As a boy of power, we felt Haden should let his henchmen dot he work to portray the upper class attitude. 

The lighting in the shots was one of my favourite things because it really emphasised the colour of the location we picked. Although we had storyboarded a few shots for the field, we improvised and took more shots than planned as we felt it would give us more material for post-production.

After the field shots, we moved deeper into the forest. We decided to add/change a few shots.

One of the shots we added was Haden and Selene looking down whilst their henchmen run past them.

Both me and Daniel filmed the extreme low angled shot by laying on the floor and allowing Fiona to jump over the camera. This was a good way to try out new shots and learn different techniques.

Another thign we changed was the tracking shot of Fiona. On the day, we decided to make the frame a lot tighter than we had planned to follow Hollywood conventions and make it more dramatic.

As for other shots, Daniel experimented and added a few extra shots of Fiona running through a branch covered area. This made the shots seem more urgent as she scrambled through them.  Moreover, when filming the shot of Fiona falling, it only took one shot. Although usally, we film a shot a few times to ensure we get the exact one we want, we felt it was not necessary this time. Fiona did really well as an actress; she ran and hit the floor very dramatically.

One of the hardest shots to shoot was the low angled shot where Haden swings the bat down onto the camera lens. This took a few attempts but proved dangerous. At one point, the nails on the baseball bat hit the lens of the camera and just missed Daniel's hand. This taught me the safety and dangers of filming with props.

Once we had filmed the forest scenes, we moved onto the tunnel shot. Since the tunnel was full of water and incredibly slippy, we found the shot to be difficult to shoot. Also, the water was freezing and seaping through the actors/actress' feet so we wanted to film it as quick as possible. Iain keptslipping and trying to keep his balance whereas Kieran and Alex were bothered about falling it. After a few attempts, we finally got it filmed. Daniel got a point of view shot (looking behind a tree at Haden's group), which we did not storyboard, which me and Iain really liked. 

Finally, we filmed the 'find them' shot. Instead of using an extreme close-up, we used a close-up as we wanted other members to be visible behind Iain (Haden).

At the end of filming, we were all freezing and very hungry, so we treat ourselves do a big McDonalds. YUM!

Re-scehduling the Road Shot and Skyline

Re-scheduling the Road Shot and Skyline

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The Road Shot

After moving the dates of filming, Daniel and Iain stayed up to film in the early hours of the morning.

During filming, they both experienced difficulty as there were more cars on the road than expected. Also, they had trouble with working the tripod; the tripod was new and they could not figure out how to work the tilt on it. 

Due to this, they both decided to use a handheld shot to get the tilt we needed.

However, after the shot, they both thought that it could have been better so as a group, we planned another day to get the shot. 

The next day (21/10/13), Iain took the camera to film alone as it would be more efficient and easier than taking the whole group.

When filming, Iain found other issues this time. Although we had figured out the tilt on the tripod, the road was not as empty as we had hoped. Iain attempted to get a good shot but the shot was disrupted by cars passing by.

Therefore, he went to the forest to try and get the establishing shot of the wood.

Here is a video:

We liked the shots Iain got as this experimented with different movements and shots. They were also quite fantastical with the high key lighting, which matched our sci-fi/ apocalyptic genre. 

Due to Iain's unsuccessful road shot, we looked back at our old shots and decided to use those instead. We found a good shot that wasn't too shaky (although it was handheld) so we could move on with our other filming schedules; we had a lot left to film.

Skyline Shot:

For this shot, we decided to go to the top of a multi-story car park to allow us to get a good skyline shot.

The sky was perfect as it was cloudy with patches of light, resembling our apocalyptic genre/narrative.

We planned to film around 16:00 as we knew it would be good lighting (low-key lighting) and quite empty at this time.

When we reached the top of the car park, the view looked amazing and exactly what we wanted to shoot. We positioned the camera and began to take a few shots, each taking turns on the pan.

After taking a very little amount of shots, a car park attendant came over and asked what we were doing. Politely, we told him about our A Level Media course and why we were filming. However, he soon explained that we were not supposed to be filming there as we needed a permit from the Council to continue.
Since we had no idea or awareness of this, we apologized and left quietly.

Daniel and Iain suggested that we try the other car park, however, this idea did not progress as it was closing.

I found the experience rather beneficial as it gave me an insight into the rules and laws of filming and where you can/cannot film. It also helped me to manage a situation and understand the issues that can be found within the media industry.

Extra Shots:

Daniel also went out and shot some extra establishing shots. Here is a video of a few of them:

The Dolly Shot

The Dolly Shot

The first thing we decided to shoot was the dolly shot as it was in college and seemed the most challenging. 

As we had planned in our storyboard, we wanted the camera to dolly past someone's head, ultimately giving the appearance that Ged (the teacher) had vanished when it came out the other side. 

We wrote out a shooting schedule to plan when we were going to film and who we would need to be there. Since the scene needed to represent a class, we had to ensure that we had a large amount of people willing to help. 

We thought a good room to use would be the lecture theater, within our college, as the seats are tiered and it has good room for us to work in.

 To set up, Iain put a History PowerPoint on the board and we sat Daniel down in one of the seats. Since we do not have a Dolly or any form of equipment that is similar, we decided to improvise and make our own.

By using a jacket, we found that the camera could run smoothly across the desk, creating a dolly shot. At first, we had difficulty finding the right pace, keeping the jacket off the lens and making the jacket quiet when we moved it.

We asked if we could borrow a class to help out and they agreed, allowing us to fill up the frame on the camera. Luckily, the class had Clare (Selene) in it so it added extra characters from our plot.

How the Dolly Shot worked:

1. The camera would start on the left showing Ged teaching
2. The camera would be moved right to go behind a student's head.
3. I would give the signal to Ged to move behind a wooden desk whilst the camera was behind the head
4. The camera would come from behind the head and Ged would be gone

We knew this would be a challenge but it became harder than expected. To make the Dolly run smoothly, we had to keep a quicker pace. However, when the camera came out on the right, Ged was seen moving (sometimes it was obvious and other times it was subtle.)


After almost two hours of filming, we still did not have a shot that had Ged disappearing as the many attempts always had Ged in shot. Therefore, we got some re-action shots, of the class, when Ged 'vanished'. Due to our unsuccessful dolly, we re-scheduled to shoot another day.

Corridor Shot:

After our unsuccessful Dolly, me and Iain decided  to film one of the establishing shots: the corridor.

For this shot, we needed to use a zoom as we wanted to experiment with camera movements. This only took a few attempts as we all took turns to try and zoom. One think we disliked was how bright the corridor seemed as it was not possible to turn the lights off. Therefore, we decided that we would edit it later during post-production. 

Re-Shooting the Dolly:
This time, we decided we needed more people to help to cover Ged's movements. Moreover, we decided that I should be in the frame and allow Clare to give Ged the signal. That way, as a main protagonist, I could be in the shot.

Another thing we changed, was the way in which Ged hid from the camera. We decided instead of him moving to his left and hiding behind a desk, he should just duck down. That way, the camera was less likely to see him in with the speed of the dolly.

After many more attempts, we finally got one shot that gave the illusion that Ged had vanished. This was great because many people were becoming impatient and we needed to move onto other shots.

Overall, I felt that we attempted a very challenging shot considering we did not have a Dolly or a track. The shot looks believable and works well to portray our narrative.

Here is a montage of a few unsuccessful attempts and the successful shot.

Establishing Shots: The Empty Road and Skyline

Establishing Shots: The Empty Road and Skyline

The shot we scheduled to film was the establishing shot of the empty road and Skyline.

Since we needed the road to be empty, Iain and Daniel volunteered to stay round Daniel's house to enable them to get up early for the shot. That way, the road would be less busy during the early hours of the morning. Then, later that day, I planned to meet them for the Skyline shot.

Unfortunately, when the weekend arrived, we had to cancel due to Daniel being in hospital.

Our main priority was him so we ensured that he was better before re-scheduling.