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.