Finshing off filming - 26/01/10

Today was pretty successful too. We had slight problems at the start of the two hour lesson due to the fact that the camera just seem to keep failing on us. We first thought that we had deleted everything and would have to start again, which frustrated us all...But with a bit of help from our teacher and by resetting the camera twice and finally actually moving onto an entirely different camera, we got down to business.
Firstly me and Sarah realised we needed a few props, so went and got the cap that Ashley needed, being the pizza man, and the paint that we would later use as fake blood when Ashley was stabbed. We also tried to find a black piece of material to go over our own-made sofa (made from chairs and sofa blocks)to try and make it more authentic-looking, but after going to the drama department and finding they were in exam, we just carried on without it.
After setting up the sofa and the artificial light as we had the week before to make it look spooky and try not to let the lighting gleam onto the camera (yet this wasn't very successful so we just left it in the end), we could get down to filming our next scenes. We needed to go over the scene's that had me sitting our sofa half-way through the mini-film because I didn't love the scenes we had taken last week and wanted to make sure they were just right. This took a few takes because someone kept making me laugh or I started chewing my chewing gum as a nervous reaction. Haha. After we had got the clip of me just sitting on the sofa (as Ashley's point of view when he walked into the room) we needed to get a shot of Ashley actually walking towards me and then another over-shoulder shot to then allow me to say my first line which was 'Finally' - which brought the thought of me having to wait for a while and whilst we were still in the same shot, Ashley said his first line, being: 'That will be £10.99 please'.
After those shots had been taken, we needed a shot from over my shoulder to allow me to then stand up and say my next line, being: 'Sure' and then pull out some money to give to Ashley. This took a few shots again as the camera was either not placed in the position we wanted it, or I stood in the way of Ashley being able to be seen in the shot. We eventually got the shot in the end and then thought we really needed a better shot to really establish the fact that I handed the money over to Ashley. So this meant we needed a shot of me handing it over. This took a few goes again as the camera was either too high or low, but in the end we got it how we wanted it.
After that we had to try and find a suitable piece of equipment to be in place of a knife so that I could stab Ashley for the finale. We were going to use a spoon and try not to actually shoot any close-ups on it, but in the end found a pair of scissors that were perfect for the feel we were going for. Sarah then did a close-up on the pair of scissors in my pocket and zoomed out to get a bigger picture for the full effect which worked great.
We then went onto another small scene in which I pull the scissors out of my pocket slowly and push forward, but not yet into Ashley, this only took one shot. Next we did the stabbing shot. This took a few goes as the camera was not in the right place to actually get the effect of the scissors going into Ashley's side, but in the end we got a mid-shot and a close-up of it and it looked great.
We then needed to get the fake blood (paint) onto Ashley's shirt and therefore just poured a lot of it onto his t-shirt where the scissors were supposed to have gone in and all over his hands to make it look like he was trying to save himself.
We then got a shot of Ashley staggering about a bit clutching the scissors in his hand (they were really supposed to be in his flesh). This only took one shot which was good and got us going faster. Ashley was then filmed dropping straight to the floor and still holding the scissors in his body.
When he was on the floor, we filmed him grabbing onto my leg to get the 'save me' effect, which needed to be taped twice as we thought the first one was a bit weedy. The penultimate shot was of me then pulling the scissors from Ashley's 'flesh' and then walking over him to make it look as though I wasn't bothered and that bit more scary.
Our final shot was of Ashley's full body from toe to head lying on the floor. Except, when we got to his stomach the camera actually ran out of battery and therefore we couldn't actually finish all the way up to his head and probably won't use this shot for our final finished piece.

Planning.

As a group we firstly had the idea that we would do a thriller, to make it scary and entice the audience.
We then had the idea that we would have a person come to the door and walk in to a person on a sofa in a dark room. After they had walked in they would see a briefcase and look inside it to something a little less scary than how the scenes had already been. I did like this idea but I didn't really want the film to end happily, I though it would be ruined and wanted to go out with a bang.
Ashley then came up with the idea that we should have someone delivering a pizza. I liked this idea as it had reasoning behind the person actually coming to the house and we could end it badly if we wanted, which in the end we decided to do. We decided that a pizza man would walk to the door of a house in the evening and then walk in to a woman that looked quite scary and at the end of the scene the pizza man would end up being stabbed and would eventually die. We then wrote up our ideas onto the storyboards and I was very eager to start filming so did a quick sketch with the ideas for the dialogue and which shots to take from Sarah. We then had all our ideas and started filming, which can be seen in my next blog.

First Day of Filming on Preliminary.

Today was pretty successful in the way of filming. As we were in the Media Block, we had to try and use the surroundings as best we could. We had already had the idea of making our short film slightly scary and therefore knew we wanted our lighting to be dark/gloomy.
As the room we wanted to use was in use at the time, we tried our first shot in a different place, yet the lighting wasn't as we wanted it and as we knew we were going to be in the other room for the rest of the filming, we knew that the first four shots of Ashley's feet walking towards the door would be useless, and they didn't really have the lighting or the angle we wanted as it wasn't spooky enough.
We then moved to the room we had originally wanted, yet the hall way was too dark leading up to the door and we wanted a 'street light' sort of effect to make it look as though the pizza guy was coming towards the door to make a delivery in the evening. We then set up an artificial light and had to get a extension lead to make sure our light was in the right place.
All through the filming I was checking to see if the angles were right to make sure that we got the angles and the lighting was as I wanted it to be and how it would look best, to bring the effect of a scary film. I also held the artificial light as we filmed Ashley walking towards the door so that it was high enough to be presumed as a street light. This worked really well and by making sure we had no other shadows in the background, aside from Ashley's, allowed it to look pretty good.
We then took just one shot of Ashley's face so that we could go on further to get an eyeline shot with the wedge in the door. I wasn't too pleased with this shot, but knew that if we carried on we would be able to get more done and come back to the shot later and make it look slightly better. We then did the eyeline match of the wedge and slowly filmed down to the floor where the wedge was in the door. I was quite happy with this shot, yet it probably could have been slower and we shall edit it when we get to the editing stage.
Before we got to the 'inside room' shots, we needed to get a shot of Ashley's hand pushing open the door slowly and as if there was something scary inside.
This worked out well and only needed one shot.
We then went inside and had to set up the sofa that the 'inside room' shots would be based around. When this had been done, we needed to get in the eyeline view in which I would be sitting in after we had got our last shot of Ashley. By setting up the camera on the tripod in front of the 'sofa', it made sure that would look as though I was watching Ashley when he walked through the door. The shot took about 4 times to do as we thought he was going a bit fast through the door and wanted the affect of being confused by the wedge in the door and the dark room behind the door. In one fot he shorts we also cut Ahsley's head off and I wasn't pleased with that so the final shot was the one that we agreed on and in the end really matched what we wanted and how the film was going to be set out.
We then needed to try and set up the room to look slightly dimmed but the light had to conentrate on me and make me look sort of scary in order to allow the viewer to see what Ashley was seeing and really question what was going to happen next. We then achieved this by putting the artificial light at the side of the room through an extra door and the light shone onto the area that I was sitting in, which highlighted me more than it did the room around me, meaning I was definitely the main point which is what we had wanted to produce. I then tried to get into a position in which I would look evil and though I was going to do something terrible. I got into a position but Sarah then decided it would be better if we were then to zoom into my face to make sure the audience could get a feel of how the rest of the scene was going to go...
This worked out pretty well but at this point the camera was running out of battery and we therefore needed to stop filming.
All in all the day was very productive and we should soon by well on our way with the editing stages.