Thriller - Write up of shoot day

Shoot Day

Our shoot day was on the 22nd January and overall was very successful. The day before the shoot we prepared the props in order to ensure that we could start shooting as early as possible the following day. We constructed and printed off the document needed by the business man, and collected the Bible and cross necklace for the young girl. Also, we made sure that our actors could definitely be a part of the shoot and had the necessary costume. On the day of the shoot we left school at 9:30 as we had to shoot the hanging in daylight while also allowing time for the drive to my house. I was very excited as we left school, but first we had to double check that we had all the equipment. We made sure that we had the camera, tripod and sound equipment. For this part of the shoot we did not need any lighting equipment as we were using natural light. I felt well prepared for the shoot as we had created a very detailed story board thus we all had a clear idea of what we were going to film.

When we arrived at my house we had to overcome some problems that had arisen. However, before we started we had to prepare the area in order to shoot. We moved a bench so that it was underneath the tree thus the girl could use it to sit on and read the Bible and also jump off. Also, we had to find a good rope that was strong enough to hold our actor while also being realistic in the fact that she had found it in her house. In the end we tied two ropes together and this worked very well. As we were filming outside the studio it did not take long to prepare the area and we were happy with the way it looked as it was very natural and fitted well with our concept. The first problem was that we had not been able to use a harness for the hanging due to safety risks thus we had to come up with alternative shots that would portray the hanging but without using a wide shot. Therefore we concentrated on close ups of the feet and head. But in order to create the idea that the girl had jumped, fallen and then slightly retracted we had to use slightly unconventional methods. First we tried having our girl actor hold onto the ends of the rope we had thrown round the branch and then lift her knees up and then drop back down. This proved very difficult as it required extreme upper body strength and she could not sustain it for long enough so that it looked accurate. Therefore we had to think of other alternatives. Finally, we decided to place our actor (Annie) in a swing. This meant she could lie on her stomach, while me and another member of our group lifted her legs up and swung them down. This proved effective as it gave the sudden falling effect, as well as the slight jolt up and then due to the swing, the feet were left swaying therefore giving an accurate idea of the feet dangling. The other problem was that, due to not having a harness, we had to come up with creative ideas for shooting the head. We had to be very careful when we filmed Annie with the noose around her neck and we always had a member of our team very close to her so that if she slipped she would not actually hang herself. As we didn't have a harness we filmed the head in extreme close up before and after the 'jump' so that we didn't have to fake any neck movement. This seemed to work well as the noose and the facial expressions are the only part that you can see. 

Once we had filmed the hanging sequence we transferred back to school so that we could film the business man sequence. Here we had to use lighting equipment so that the lighting was balanced and didn't cause large shadows. Again we were not filming in the studio, so we did not have to prepare the bathroom, except to remove anything not part of the scene from behind the door so that it would not been seen during a wide shot. In the corridor, we had to ensure we did not get any signs that were on the wall as this would have ruined the atmosphere and immediately signified that we were filming in a school. A few problems arose here but were quickly rectified them. Firstly, we had only printed off one document thus once our business man (Adam) had signed it we could no longer use it, even though we wanted to film the scene again but from a different angle. To overcome this, we put a blank sheet of A4 under the contract and filmed close enough so that we could see the writing of the contract and Adams signature but not the A4 paper. Also, as we were filming in a busy corridor which is part of a boarding house, we had many problems with other sound becoming part of our sequence. Therefore, we had to film many shots a few times so that we had the right sound. The bathroom scene ran without any problems, except we had to ensure that the camera did not leave a shadow in the sink but this was easily solved as we moved the light so that the shadow could not be seen.
 

During the shoot we did not all have individual roles that we stuck too but instead we switched around so that everyone had a go. My main role however was coming up with ideas of where to shoot and directing what Annie should do, but our whole group contributed to this as well. A member of my group has previous filming experience and thus he was more focussed on using the camera, but we all operated it and were part of it. Our other member, Holly, did the majority of the sound work therefore worked with both Annie and Adam equally. Leading up the shoot our group did have many conflicts over ideas but on the shoot day it ran reasonably smoothly and everyone seemed to know their place. We did not have any arguments and we worked well as a team and I hope this continues while we are editing.

The most successful part of the shoot, in my opinion, was the hanging scene. Here we really had to think on our feet and easily could have turned out awful, but it didn't. As a group we thought up new ideas and applied them to our concept so that they worked well. Also, as we had a lot of open space to work with we were able to do a large number of shots which was exciting to do as it meant that were using all the skills we had. I am looking forward to seeing how the scene cuts together and whether the close ups of the feet and head are a enough to convey the idea that the girl hanged herself. I wish the corridor scene had gone slightly better as we were only able to get a limited number of shots due to the size of the corridor restricting us. Also, as the action in this scene was small we had to think of different shots that would be effective without 'over filming' the piece.


I thoroughly enjoyed the whole shoot, and because we were filming three entirely different sequences I was able to learn a lot more as we had to apply different skills to each scene. What I learnt the most was that you should not expect to stick closely to your story board, but instead use it as more of a guidance. This enables you to have  vague idea of what you are filming but allow room for new ideas or changes to the original concept. Therefore, in my next shoot I will remember not to rely so heavily on the story board and this will make the shoot more successful as it is easier to come up with new ideas while you are in the moment of the shoot.