Filming dates

Filming Dates
Dates for filming/editing, when, where and what happened on these days.

21 February 3-6pm (Sun set at 6pm) - First day of filming on location. I used my own camera and tripod to film over a 100 shots, using different shot layering, camera angles and shots and contrasting lighting styles.. Loosing light was our main problem. From the weather forecast I knew that it would be sunny and I had to research when the sun was setting so we could get to the location an hour beforehand to commence preparation and to find a suitable location for filming. We got there in suitable time and had enough time to find a good filming location. We found a small wooded area which was surrounded by enormous rock edges, the sun shining through the trees produced a beautiful effect and producing silhouettes with the setting sun generated some incredibly interesting effects. The location shoot was extremely successful, there was lots of equipment to layer the shots and we received so much filming time, we did not need to film that much more. Moreover, when after filming I had to import the clips onto my computer, which seemed to be a fairly problem-free process.

22 February 9:30am-12:00pm – Today provided good lighting, however we had some continuity issues as this was shot during the morning, whereas the previous filming event occurred at sunset. We filmed on Shire Hill once again, this time capturing establishing shots along with some close ups of surroundings and plants. Moreover, due to the time we had a lot of visitors to the area who used the spaces for walking, to overcome this we just had to wait. To overcome the time issue, I found that when I began editing, reducing the brightness of the shot and adding particular colour tones made the shot seem as if it was shot during the evening. Consequently the continuity concerns were reduced.

1 March 1:30am-13:15pm - This was our first day of editing. We decided to use Matthew's laptop to edit our film as both he and I are more comfortable with the editing software. We started by placing our chosen shots in a suitable order. Moreover, I choose some effect to edit the shots with. I had to increase the contrast, reduce the brightness, add an “echo” effect to achieve my effects.

4 March 9:30pm-12pm – Today, we altered the shot times to make a much faster cutting rhythm. Furthermore we incorporated red tints to our shots, which seemed to work well with the horror genre.

8 March 1:30am-3:15pm – Today we had completed the shortening of the shots, so we had a sharp cutting rythm. Although I then decided to add non-diegetic sound to the film, I found several sound effects on “sounddogs.com” and proceeded to add echo’s to the breathing and increase the volume on certain shots.

11March 9:30am-1:15pm – Today we considered that we had completed the production process, we felt that the editing and filming process were at the best standard we could produce. However, we decided in order to know that our product was at it is best standard, we produced a trail viewing for our teachers in order to receive some feedback. In the feedback, we had realized that there was little constrast with the fast cutting rythm, and that some of the effects took away of from what were attemting to portay because the film was so stylized. For instance, we had doubled the speed on some of the running shots, and it didn’t seem appropriate as it looked particularly unnatural and unfitting for the film. Consequently we slowed down the clips to a natural speed. Likewise, we realized that somehow we had to integrate titles, although we felt that because the opening was so sharp and poignant, that adding titles would ruin this effect. Thus, we had to decided whether to place titles after the initial action or before.

15 March 1:30pm-3:15 – In the end, we felt only appropriate to integrate the titles before the action. Additionally we asked for more feedback on the product, a few major issues were raised. Due to the fast pace, our feedback consisted of producing a contrast to this fast pace, and to use some handheld shots from the killers viewpoint, in addition to some shots of the killer.

When we decided we did need a contrast to the action, we decided that we produce an additional scene linear to the scene already produced, our ideas consisted of a flash-forward demonstrating how the remains of a body we uncovered in the woods, with police and tape. Or, we decided that we would incorporate some shot in a graveyard, demonstrating someone mourning the killing.

18 March 9:30am-12pm – Today we concluded that the initial idea of discovering a body in the woods required too many mise en scene requirements, as an expensive costume, setting and props were needed which we could not provide.

As a result, we utilized the idea of a point of view shot of someone mourning the death of the child. However, this footage was unused due to issues with technology.

22 March 9:30am-12pm – Due to the errors and the fears over reducing the effect of the opening, we decided against integrating an alternative scene. I then added the opening titles and incorporated the song “Jon Murphy – In a heartbeat”.

25 March – Today I decided to alter the sound track. I wanted to make it very disorientating for the viewer, thus I incorporated some reverberation, layered 10 different sound effects and increased to volume on particular shots.