Shooting Day

A few days before our actual shoot I thought we had most of our things organised, we had located props, actors/actresses, make up, and location. However as soon as we started our shoot day we ran into a few problems. We started off our shooting day without a main actor for our thriller sequence. Our previous choices had informed us that they would be unable to be in the thriller the day before the actual shoot. So in a hurried fashion we found an actor. Luckily, it had only taken an hour to find an actor and we were able to continue with the shoot. We had decided to shoot our sequence in Lithe hill. However, on the last second we decided to shoot in the woods nearby, which meant we would waste less time getting to the location and more on shooting. Other than that though we were good to go.
We had decided that we would film the actor chasing ‘himself’ from the right of the screen to the left. This would make the audience feel uncomfortable about the sequence as we usually witness movement in movies from the right to the left. This meant we needed to film all the shots twice, once with the chaser running and then with the victim running. However, as the chaser and victim were the same person we filmed all of the chaser shots first and then changed the chasers clothing so he looked like the victim with blood sprayed on him and then redid the shots so we could edit the shots into a horrific sequence of cat and mouse between a dying man and his doppelganger.
We began with a series of pans which shot the ‘chasers’ feet, then legs, then torso, and eventually his hooded head. We film some shots with the camera in our hands and not a fixed position to make the shot look shaky. We did this so that shot can communicate the distress and panic of the situation. After the pan shots we moved onto a few close ups of the actor emerging from a heavy bush and walking coolly past the camera. We took two shots from this location. The first was just a simple shot. However, with the second shot we shook the camera on the tripod to keep the distressed and panicky feel to the sequence intact. Before we started shooting again after lunch it began to rain for a short while. However, luckily it ended with a short amount of time but if it hadn’t we might have lost a quite large amount of time due to the weather conditions.
We had decided to set the sequence in a forest in England, and as it was winter when we shot the sequence we had the good fortune of having a forest with a very gloomy and grey mood to it to shoot in. This meant we could relate the mood of the forest to the actual shot making the mise en scene ever more interesting. Nevertheless, being able to manoeuvre through the forest was quite difficult, especially while filming.
We decided to use mostly dark clothing for our actor to wear. The reason was mainly to have him very visible in comparison with the dim background. We used a black t-shirt, dark grey sweater, and black jeans. The clothes also translated the darkness of the event taking place which was also useful.
Though our actor was picked at the last second he is a drama student so he knew what he was doing in any case. As for appearance the actor had full control of what he wished to look like so fortunately he was able to not only act like a stone cold killer but also a panicking victim.
We had to use natural lighting due to the location in which we were shooting. For most of the shooting this was not an issue. However, once in awhile the sun would appear from the clouds and make some shots look inconsistent with others simply due to lighting. Nonetheless, this wasn’t a major issue so we managed to barrel through it.
We are going to record our sound in the post-production so I cannot discuss sound issues at this time.
In the production I managed to involve myself as thoroughly as possible in the actual setting and shooting of shots. As it was my thriller sequence we were working with, a lot of the shooting required me to see where each shot would be placed in the overall sequence. The rest of my group were all given time to use the camera for their own imaginative desires.
As a team I found that we worked quite well. There was no one in particular which influenced the group in a negative way, and none of the members provided a negative energy which brought the rest of the group down. However, sometimes I did get a feeling that I was pulling more than my own weight. Yet, as I am quite accustomed to do so I never really bothered by it.
By the end of the day I was really happy with the work we had done. The footage we had captured will provide a profusion of materials to work into a thriller sequence we can be proud of. Even though the storyboard requirements did change in some aspects I am also pleased about how close the shots actually were to the original idea. The only major difference between the storyboards and the captured shots was the ending. We had originally intended to have the victim killed in a pov shot. However, we changed the ending so that there is more of a climax with both the victims face together with the chasers face being in the same shot before the chaser kills the victim.
Even though we started off on a very bad note, we managed to turn it all around and accomplish our goal for the day. We managed to capture good footage which will enable us to produce a excellent thriller sequence.