Filming Session 1

Filming Session 1: Scenes 1-12

To increase efficiency of our strict filming schedule and to take control of our task we decided to film the first half of our film introduction in one of our houses. Katie Finch lived just 20 minutes away from the school grounds and it made sense to utilise her free house rather than waste over 40 minutes to reach another suitable house for the film introduction, this is evident in Figure 1.1. Furthermore not only was Katie's house/accommodation extremely convenient due to it's location but in terms of representation and creation of atmosphere it suited the job perfectly. The long winding staircase provided a sense of deorentation, evident in the images analysed later on in this post, and the lack of light provided us with a sinister natural undertone for the film introduction, providing connotations of a dark story.

When?

23rd January 2017

We decided to film on Monday 23rd January for two reasons. Firstly it was most suitable for the whole cast and production team. Our antagonist Ben Nixon was not actually part of the immediate group and so it was difficult to find a time when we were all available. After studying our timetables we had Monday afternoon off. Not only did this enable us an extra two hours to do film but it also meant that we could film the thriller film opening when most people are either working. From a practical point of view this was beneficial as we could film the opening sequence in relative silence adding to the eeriness of the film. Secondly, as you can see from the extract from the filming schedule above, that we filmed it in Clifton. Our school is based a 20 minute walk away from Katie's house and so this also increased efficiency.

The walk we made from Redcliffe Sixth Form to 5 Upper Berkeley Place for filiming on 23/01/17

This was the road the house was on. Adding to the sinister aspect of the film it appears this road joins to an alley way often provoking connotations of crime and often used as a location in thrillers. In addition Katie's house was directly above and beneath a school which adds another sinister tone to the film as the theme of children in a murder sequence is often quite disturbing.

Finally we studied the weather forecast for the 23rd January. We wanted our film introduction to have a psycological twist. Initially we used high key lighting to push the audeince into thinking the film would be based around a relationship and romance. However it soon becomes apparent that a vulnerable woman has been murdered and the audience would have been lured into a false sense of security. Luckily the weather on Monday 23rd January provided us with a sound basis to create that exact atmosphere due to level on sunshine coming through the windows. The sun then set at 16:30 and so as we were filming the last sections of our film introduction in the house the light lowered and it gave a sinister look to the footage.

As you can see from the weather forecast gathered from (timeanddate.com) the sun was very much prevalent and gave us the desired effect.

The Equipment

3 JVC GZ-HM45BUS Full HD Everio Camcorders, 3 JVC GZ-HM45BUS Full HD Everio Camcorder Chargers.1 Velbon EF-61 tripod, 1 Konig KN-DL10 Dolly

Filming Session 1 can be seen between 0:04 - 1:02 (SEE BENEATH)

Analysing our filming methods

Camera - In the first filimg session we tried to present the antagonist and dominant. Initially we aimed to nerve the audience by using a handheld camera. With the antagonist walking up the staircase and the handheld camera following him one got a real sense of disorienation. During the bedroom scene we would either show the antagonist looming over the victim or blocking her from the light with an over the shoulder shot. We used high angle shots to represent her vulnerability and his dominance. 

Representation - The first scene can see the antagonist walking up the stairs which appears to be a seemlessly normal act, has hints of something is not being quite right. Ben Nixon's character, the antagonist is wearing his trousers over his jeans. The aim of this was to make the audience a little uncomfortable by his presence. In addition we used the natural high key light filtered by the white curtains to shine down on Izzi Harrison (the victim). This envokes the theme of purity and innocence for the victim and with the antagonist blocking the light and wearing black clothes connotations of death and destruction come to foreground.

Sound - We used the constant non-diegetic parallel background music of Katie Finch on the piano to create a constant sinister tone throughout the whole half of the film introduction. In addition we slowed down the music when the antagonist entered the bathroom. Leaving the tap on, inspired by 'The Usual Suspects', acted as a warning or symbolic of a clock counting down the time someone had to live.  

Issues faced during filming

During our first filimg session we experienced a few issues. Firstly we had to carry all the equipment from the school ground to the location of filming whislt avoiding any damage to the equipment which could have been detrimental to the quality of our footage. In addition filimg in January meant we were constrained to how much we could film and what the lighting could be used. Every second we would lose daylight and in terms of representation we needed to have as much light as possibly. Time was also hampered as the cameras we did bring were constantly running out of charge. After it took 45 minutes to set up the cameras and go over the roles of the cast, trying to stick to the storyboard, we lost a lot of battery from the cameras. This has further repurcussions as it occasionally during filming we would lose clips and this would eat into the time avaiable. Finally for the scene where Ben Nixon runs his hand over the arm of the victim, Izzi Harrison, we wanted to portray a sense of domination and superiority. We used a high angle shot looking down on the victim to highlight her vulnerabililty however to achieve this shot we need to have height and a steady hand. Evan Fieldhouse is 6ft 1 and so in theory it would be easy for this shot to be caputred but to hold the tripod as well it required a steady hand and took the prodcution crew a good 10 minutes to capture this shot. 

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