The first filming we did was when we took establishing shots of London. The location we chose was to film around London Bridge and also of the river. When we were filming, we decided the shots would look more interesting and busier from higher up, so we walked up Monument and filmed from the top of that. We were not allowed to take the tri pod up with us, so those certain shots were done free hand. The most interesting shots were the ones where the camera is behind metal wire, which gives a rough, dangerous, trapped kind of feeling which contrasts with the buildings and sunset you see through the gaps in the wire.
The second time we filmed was in the alleyway and high street of Golders Green. This is when we used our first actor, Olivia who plays the main girl in our film. We waited until late 4ish to start filming because we wanted to capture our shots just as it was beginning to get dark, but because in winter it gets dark quickly, this meant all of our equipment had to be set up and ready before hand, so once the time came, we were able to go out and shoot without any problems. Once we began to shoot, we found this took longer than expected but we managed to film everything that was needed by the time it too dark. We took many different angle and size shots, so we had a variety to choose from to use for our film, making sure there was a good continuity flow. Our actor walked down the high street which originally was too long too shoot, so we selected parts of the road that would work to our advantage in terms of light and background scenery for our shots and we will cut them together to give the illusion to the audience that our character has walked down the full road. As it got darker, we tried to capture extra light from street lamps, which highlighted our actor and kept in details that would have been lost in the dark for example our actors dark hair. Even though the light being projected from the street lamps was not natural, it still worked and added to the mysterious, dangerous feel we were going for and this also helps create enigma. The sudden change in light helps our film emphasize the change in day and her walk becoming gradually more dangerous. We couldn’t use some of the footage where cars and pedestrians had interrupted whilst filming because the enigma would have been lost if our character was by other people, then it wouldn’t seem like she was alone and vulnerable. It was challenging syncing what our character was saying with different parts of the road to create a flow in conversation. On the shots where there is dialog, there is too much background noise, so a voice over will be needed.
The third time we filmed was in the same location, Golders Green alleyway but on a different day and with the rest of our actors, who would be playing the hooded boys. Even though it was on separate days, we made sure it was filmed around the same time of day so continuity was kept and it just seemed like a flowing sequence of events. One of our male characters has a darker skin tone, which was difficult to capture on film clearly with a hood up in the dark. The lighting was too dark, which effected how clear the shots came out and the filming because when it is dark, it is hard to see whether what you are filming is in focus or not. The alley way is more enclosed than the high street, which we did not take into consideration and when we tried filming under a street light, only the silhouette, of the boys would show. Once we realized it is too dark to keep on filming, we decided on another date to re-shoot. The microphone on the camera we used is also quite small so the dialog coming from the boys was not clear.
I was please with our filming and the efforts of our actors, but I do think we need to re-shoot the shots of the hooded boys, simply because of the lighting. It may be possible to brighten them on Final Cut Pro and if they are not too grainy then we will use the shots in our film.
Equipment List:
Skateboard (For Tracking shot of feet)
Yoga Mat (For tracking shot of feet)
Video Camera - Sony HDV
Trip pod - Velbon
Laptop
Microphone
Planning:
To make sure we were prepared for filming, we sent an email to each of our actors, explaining the idea of our film, what they are required to do, the dates of in which they are needed (and if they are not available, to tell us) and what costumes/props were wanted. Each of our actors got given a script and the character that had dialog, were asked to know their lines before filming started. Before we did the real filming at the specific time, we did a test run in daylight to make sure they knew what they were doing and felt comfortable as well as confident with it. We checked the weather forecast for good days to film on and then decided the chosen dates. For one of our tracking shots on our characters feet, walking, we used a yoga mat and skateboard in order to create a smooth track as we did not have the necessary equipment and the camera would have been to unsteady if we tried to bend down and follow our character.
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