Civic Centre - Morning
This morning I got to college at 8:30 so that I could print off all the scripts and other paperwork that was needed for the day. Once I'd gotten everything printed off, I went back over to the art building to meet my group and collect our equipment. We were running a little late, as we had had a talk with our tutors before hand, so I sent Ethan (our director) and Emily (one of our actresses) over to the Civic Centre as we had to meet Sarah at 9:45. I collected the equipment with Kira and Jemma and we brought it over to the Civic Centre where we met with the rest of our group.
We had to sign in for health and safety reasons and were given visitor passes so that people knew that we were allowed to be there. Here is a photo of the visitor pass:
We had to sign in for health and safety reasons and were given visitor passes so that people knew that we were allowed to be there. Here is a photo of the visitor pass:
Once we had been told where all the fire exits and such were, we were free to begin filming. We decided that the main room was a bit too big, so we went into the small "office" area to film instead. Here is a picture of the large room and of the office room.
Our first task was to rearrange the tables, as there were two stacked on top of each other. The table was extremely heavy, so all of us grabbed a corner of it and lifted it together so that the weight was shared. It took us a little while, but we got it down and no one hurt themselves. As there were phone numbers written on a board, we positioned the camera and such so that it was facing away from the board, as we didn't want to wipe it just in case the information on there was important. Here are some pictures of how we set up the office.
Just as we were about to start recording, we realized that the Tascam wasn't working properly. Our sound operator Kira tried adjusting settings and things but it just didn't work. We thought that we would give our tutor Ed a call, but unfortunately we didn't have his number. As time was getting on, we felt that it would be better for us just to go and take the sound equipment back to college to show Ed, as college was just 15 minutes away. When we got to college and found Ed, it turned out that the reason why the sound equipment didn't seem to be working was because the headphone volume was turned right down! However, we didn't see this as a waste of time, as if we hadn't of gone back to college we might not have figured it out for ourselves.
When we returned to the Civic Centre, filming began. We had a few practice run through so that our actors could get into character. The first shot we began with was a long establishing shot to show the setting. We had borrowed a clipboard and placed the sound equipment briefcase on the table to make the scene feel more realistic. This also allowed Ethan to continue reading the script so that he could still direct while acting. We then did some close up shots of our actors so that you can see their expressions and lean a little bit about Emily's character.
Besides from the issue with the sound equipment in the beginning, filming seemed to flow extremely well, it took us just over an hour to get the shots that we wanted, which is less time than we initially expected. We then packaged up all the equipment into its bags and went to have a break for lunch.
When we returned to the Civic Centre, filming began. We had a few practice run through so that our actors could get into character. The first shot we began with was a long establishing shot to show the setting. We had borrowed a clipboard and placed the sound equipment briefcase on the table to make the scene feel more realistic. This also allowed Ethan to continue reading the script so that he could still direct while acting. We then did some close up shots of our actors so that you can see their expressions and lean a little bit about Emily's character.
Besides from the issue with the sound equipment in the beginning, filming seemed to flow extremely well, it took us just over an hour to get the shots that we wanted, which is less time than we initially expected. We then packaged up all the equipment into its bags and went to have a break for lunch.
Carlisle College - Afternoon
Before we started filming, we had to do makeup, as our characters required it. Jasmine applied her foundation and did her base makeup, so that I could use my bruise wheel to create bags and such under her eyes to make her look ill and drained.
Below are some pictures of us while we applied the makeup:
Below are some pictures of us while we applied the makeup:
As I was also acting in the film, I too had to wear theater makeup. However, I wasn't sure if we were going to have time to do all the scenes where my face is in shot, so I just did a really basic black eye and other bruises, as opposed to the bloodied makeup that I'll have to wear tomorrow. I did however have to make my hand look dead and injured, so I defined all the bones on my fingers and added some slashes, as my hand will appear on Mourning Girls shoulder and wipe away her tears. Below is a picture of my hand:
Since we'd been getting ready in the mac lab which was just along from the stairwell where we planned to film, we figured that here would be a good scene to start with. The first scene that we decided to do was scene 3 where Mourning Girl is crying in the stairwell after having an argument with her friend Natalie. We gave Jasmine a script and said to her she could take her time to get into her character, however, as soon as she'd looked over it once, she immediately got into character and started crying hysterically, the whole crew were really taken aback with how talented she was, myself included as I've never gotten to see her act fully like that before.
The only issue that we had with this scene was that Jasmine couldn't sit how that character does in the storyboard due to her skirt, however this wasn't a problem as the scene had lots of closeups anyways, so that solved the problem. It was a little awkward for the sound operator, as the stairwell was quite low and we had a fire exit on one side of us that we had to be careful not to block.
Here are some pictures taken while this scene was being filmed:
The only issue that we had with this scene was that Jasmine couldn't sit how that character does in the storyboard due to her skirt, however this wasn't a problem as the scene had lots of closeups anyways, so that solved the problem. It was a little awkward for the sound operator, as the stairwell was quite low and we had a fire exit on one side of us that we had to be careful not to block.
Here are some pictures taken while this scene was being filmed:
The next scene that we filmed was scene 2 which is where Mourning Girl is having an argument with her friend Natalie in the hallway. As we had just been filming under the stairs, we thought that it might work to have them arguing on the stairs, and then have Mourning Girl run down the stairs and hide. We had to take extra care when filming here, as we were on the stairs and had to be careful not to fall or drop any equipment down the stairs. I thought that the crew did extremely well with handling the equipment on the stairs.
We first got some shots of Mourning Girl's feet as she approaches the stairs to add tension, as the audience won't have seen her yet and will be wondering who's feet they are. For this shot, our camera operator Jemma had to lie on the ground.
We then moved on to the shot where Natalie is chasing after Mourning Girl and getting abusive with her. We took several different camera angles of this, so that when it is edited, we have plenty of angles to choose for so that we can see which works best.
What was most challenging about filming on the stairs was the sound operator, as she had to hold the boom pole over the railing to be able to record Natalie and Mourning Girl, and holding this position for the length of time that she did was quite difficult for her, but she did manage and hopefully we'll have got some great recordings.
We first got some shots of Mourning Girl's feet as she approaches the stairs to add tension, as the audience won't have seen her yet and will be wondering who's feet they are. For this shot, our camera operator Jemma had to lie on the ground.
We then moved on to the shot where Natalie is chasing after Mourning Girl and getting abusive with her. We took several different camera angles of this, so that when it is edited, we have plenty of angles to choose for so that we can see which works best.
What was most challenging about filming on the stairs was the sound operator, as she had to hold the boom pole over the railing to be able to record Natalie and Mourning Girl, and holding this position for the length of time that she did was quite difficult for her, but she did manage and hopefully we'll have got some great recordings.
The final scene we shot today was scene 4 which was in a classroom. We didn't want to cause too much disruption as we filmed it in our media classroom, so we just took an empty desk and filmed while everyone else got on with their work to make it look more realistic.
Overall, I think that we had a fairly successful day filming. We didn't get as many scenes recorded as I'd hoped we would, but I'd think that by tomorrow we should be done. Today we managed to get scenes 1, 2, 3 and 4 completed which is quite good going. Tomorrow, we'll just have scenes 5 and 6 to do and then the shots with Belle in the background and such. We had also considered cutting scene 5 if we don't have enough time, as we are worried about our film being too long, but we may film it, just in case we do have enough time to put it into the film.
If we could have done today over again, I think we should have made sure that the Tascam was working properly before we left for the Civic Centre, as we wouldn't have lost 25 minutes of filming time. I think we could of also tried to have filmed for longer, because after we had completed scene 4, the crew seemed to disappear. I think we could have gotten scene 5 recorded if the rest of the crew hadn't left so early.
Overall, I think that we had a fairly successful day filming. We didn't get as many scenes recorded as I'd hoped we would, but I'd think that by tomorrow we should be done. Today we managed to get scenes 1, 2, 3 and 4 completed which is quite good going. Tomorrow, we'll just have scenes 5 and 6 to do and then the shots with Belle in the background and such. We had also considered cutting scene 5 if we don't have enough time, as we are worried about our film being too long, but we may film it, just in case we do have enough time to put it into the film.
If we could have done today over again, I think we should have made sure that the Tascam was working properly before we left for the Civic Centre, as we wouldn't have lost 25 minutes of filming time. I think we could of also tried to have filmed for longer, because after we had completed scene 4, the crew seemed to disappear. I think we could have gotten scene 5 recorded if the rest of the crew hadn't left so early.