Prelim Task- Filming Process Pt.1

Wednesday 2nd November 2016

Taking the long shot of Paddy

This is the day which we chose to film, however we had some difficulties with our costumes so the only sections we were able to film were Paddy's (or the husband who had been captured by I, the business woman). Screenshots of our most successful shots (and how they were created) are below:

The close up was taken with a bar of lighting below the camera. This was successful because the sharp, white colour which we used illuminated the dust particles and flecks of dirt on the ground which is an essential for creating the ambience of a dirty environment. The success in this shot however, was also the failure in it because the lighting turned out to be too sharp for any other shots to look natural, so when it came to editing, it made it difficult to seamlessly make transitions etc. A side note: I inserted this screenshot after the editing had taken place so the credits can be seen, this should be ignored as I am only looking at the mise-en-scene.

Furthermore, a mid shot of the door from the inside was used as a point of view shot for when a bag is put over the victim's head (by placing the bag over the camera). The point of view shot was successful due to the small movements it reflected which someone would make through heavy breathing. Although the bag placement was not very successful, due to too much light getting through the bag (we corrected this through editing), I feel like this was a difficult concept to get decently right. Lastly, another fault in this shot is probably the lighting which seems far too unnatural and forced as the shadow is cast at an awkward angle in such a way that would be unlikely to appear due to the typical placement of lighting in small rooms.

This close up shot I think turned out to be good because of the way it is lit. The very low-key lighting allows the shadows to blend in softly to the backdrop and adds a very smooth surface to the subject (being Joelle), a personality we were hoping to achieve as it is a good contrast to my own (being sharp), expressed by harsh lighting (on the right). A reason however, I am not 100% happy with this shot is the point that it's so soft, that it is almost completely out of focus, as well as the camera angle being too high up. This can be solved quickly and easily by making sure that the camera is placed lower down and that it is in focus.

The close up was interesting to create because it required Joelle to be in a difficult position while I held the light above in order to get the harsh light to cast a shadow on some parts on Paddy's hands and the rope. The complete shot is below and the method is on the left.

As well as this, we began the editing process around the shots we were able to take. These were just quick shots of Paddy which we were able to edit quickly and efficiently, however, we soon realised that I had made a mistake in filming the long shot (of Paddy tied up in the room) the wrong way round. We did not have time to re-film this so we settled on filming it tomorrow. The whole process of this took us just under two hours.