OUR FIRST SHOOT - 18th JANUARY 2015

OUR FIRST SHOOT

Unfortunately, despite our media teacher's warnings (and threats) Ewan and I were unable to film more than a recce shoot today. We had failed to charge al of the equipment to maximum capacity in preparation for our shoot.

However, we managed to get a shot of our Protagonist (Sara played by Meredith Mack)  in the location we wanted to use for our opening scene and possibly with the same sort of lighting that we aim to capture in our end product.

Ewan and I chose this location (the Southbank) because we felt it encapsulated the urban effect we were aiming to achieve, yet the reflection from water (of the river Thames) gave slightly eery, mysterious look in winter weather.

In actual fact, Ewan and I captured a shot where the sunlight was reflecting off the water left on the pavement, framed with large trees on either side. We thought this was quite beautiful, against the urban backdrop of London.

DISCLAIMER: we haven't quite yet mastered the act of uploading footage to youtube under the correct title......

 

ACTORS ARE FLAKEY!!!

Due to unforeseen circumstances, the actor playing our Protagonist has had to pull out of our project.

Although this is difficult and challenging for us as we had thought that this particular actor would be perfect in the role of our protagonist, we have met adversity with courage.

Despite our desire to cast our protagonist role as older than our age range, due to desperation and availability of our potential actors, we have had to cast the main role to my younger sister, Grace, aged 13.

This is not ideal as you can imagine, and anticipate that in the filming and editing process, we may have to alter our narrative slightly in order for it to make sense with our protagonist.

PLANNING - SOUNDS

Our final inspiration for our finished soundtrack was from this scene in the french film "Tell No One". Although the building guitar strumming with the atmospheric sound slightly contrasts the scenes that are being shown, it builds tension and suspense whilst still being thrilling. We used this to aid our composer Joe Reeves to compose a similar piece of music.

LIGHTING PRACTICE

Here is a task we were set in practicing using lighting before we began filming. W e experimented with making flat weather into interesting lighting through the composition of the shot. We also experimented with using filler lights and spotlights in an interior atmosphere. We learned a lot about where to position the lights and how long their battery packs last for, hopefully avoiding them running out during our night shoots!

PLANNING - LOCATION

For our locations, we are using an estate in New Cross Gate (south east London). This estate is undergoing maintenance and is covered in scaffolding, hopefully presenting a deserted estate within the film. There is this one light that stays on all the time, just above the stairways which we will use as the protagonist is being chased. Below shows some of the pictures of the estate. We will be filming here when dark.

As well as this estate, Ewan and I will be filming at the south bank in the very opening of the film. We did a recce where the light was reflecting off the wet floor with the shadows of the trees contrasting to give a really interesting shot. This is shown as below:

However, our protagonist has changed now and probably so will the composition of the shot. 

PLANNING - TARGET AUDIENCE

After doing our audience research, Ewan and I decided to change our target audience from a lower age group to 20-30. This is because we discovered that younger ages where less keen on the idea of a social realistic thriller compared to a slightly older audience.

This gives us a better idea of what the audience wants and so will allow us to create a film specifically for that audience.