The Filming Process

Blog Post EIGHT

Organisation of filming

As shown in our location post click here to see in detail of where we filmed, we planned to film a shoot our film by the PE department, taking full adantage of the stairs and lift for our film.  We planned to film on 14/12/15 with an actor named Chelsea Clarke however due to lack of time we only managed to film half our footage with the aspiration to film the following day.

Due to our actor not being within College we could not continue filming, to solve this problem we found another willing volunteer to act for us, Katie Vella. As we had already filmed with Chelsea, re-filming our sequence was a lot easier in terms of knowing and preparation of what we were going to do therefore I think that our film will end up coming out a lot better quality in comparison to the one we had done before. 

Here is Imogen trying to clear the space for us to be able to film without anybody getting into spot and spoiling our prelim. As we used such big, local areas, we didn't need to have permission in order to film in that specific location. Therefore we do not have a permission video in order to show you. As Imogen and I both shared the control of the camera organisation, we both decided what shots would look better in each location, we even added a few shots in order to give our prelim more character. 

What went well during filming?

Despite not having a video of a discussion on what we thought we did/didn't do well, we did have a discussion about it whilst editing on what we did/didn't do well. I think we shall start with the more positive side, things we did to well.

I think the first thing we did do well is organisation. Since there is only two of us within the group, rather than 3/4/5 students, the work load forced upon us is a lot more to handle. I think that we personally tackled it really well, sticking to blogpost deadlines, managing to get everything filmed (despite the slight mishaps within our main characters). I think that we shared the amounts of work load completely in order to keep Imogen and I both happy with what we were doing but also making sure we are allocating roles to what we are strongest at (e.g. mine for example, is writing)

As both Imogen and I are lucky enough to have the exact timetable (literally apart from Form and Maths), within our process of organising time to film and edit, we made a timetable that clearly showed us when we were available to be flexible so we could meet the the deadlines, the colour key below is followed:

Green- Free time
Red- Same lessons
Dark Red- any time one of us is free and the other isn't

Secondly, the management for our different areas were superb. The camera was easily set up and ready to be used for filming by mostly me (Amy) . I made sure to call actors in exactly when we needed them to ensure that our filming went smoothly by not having to take numerous amounts of the same shot to perfect it. As well as this, directing the movement of the actors made it easier to make Match On Action more fluid. As well as finding the perfect shot and lighting angle in order to fit the theme that we were originally aiming for. 

Imogen sorted out the locations of the filming quickly and efficiently. We both gathered the props that we needed by effectively doing somewhat of a market research approach to what antagonists within horrors and/or thrillers wear. This is when we came up with the idea with a black cloak, which evidently matches with our 'hiding of the identity' idea and we had the props ready for when we needed them. (Quick thank you to the performing arts department for letting us borrow the cloak)

I think we both did did a great job with the storyboard, making it easier to get the filming done as we knew exactly what we needed to shoot (Angle, shot distance, what props were needed in that shot etc.). I think the main part of storyboarding that helped us the most was the visual-picture storyboard, this helped us as we knew what sort of outcome we could have straight away and it was much easier to understand and look out. 

Although one of our strongest points was in fact organisation. I also think that this was one of our weakest. I think that the main problem we had was finding the free time between the actors, and both Imogen and I. Due to this, we had to switch characters (from Chelsea to Katie) and re-film our whole sequence. However, this wasn't necessarily something we could have helped, Chelsea became ill on the last 2-3 days of college therefore we found it extremely hard in order to carry on with our original idea. Despite this, we still battled through and carried on like we aimed for.

Overall, the filming went great and due to the fact we both helped each other out in every situation we had to face, it made doing our prelim as a two so much more easier than we thought it would be. We managed to stick to our time frame and film all the shots we needed for the editing process to start. I think because of how well Imogen and I work as a team, we managed to film and edit way more than we ever excepted to originally and therefore I think we should give ourselves a bit of credit in choosing good groups to work with.