Group Filming Day Two - Evaluation

Saturday 23rd January 2010

Members Present: Natalie Michael, Thegla Savvides, Elena Christodoulou

The session started at 10.30am

We were less organised on the previous filming day and we wasted time on efforts we couldn't use. This time round we were more organised with equipment, scripts, and what shots we needed to film.

What we aimed to achieve by the end of the session was to complete the part of the trailer featuring the character in her room, crying on her bed and rearranging notes for the audience to see. There was only one character in the trailer so she was dressed in Black and Grey to show neutral yet dark colours, we thought vibrant colours would give the sense of happiness whilst these darker colours symbolise sadness.

The first shot we filmed was an over-the-shoulder shot from different angles to give us variety during editing. Theses shots were the hardest because we had to make sure we never moved anything/or placed things back in the right place before filming again. Some of the shots we experimented with where: Zoom, close-up shots, over the shoulder shots , panning shots , wide shots, reaction shots. We used natural and artificial lighting from the window and light bulb to our advantage during the filming.

Elena C and Natalie M took it in turns to film and to hold up the microphone to which we attached to a pole in order to get closer to out actress and it not pick up our own movement.

Whilst filming, we connected the camera to a TV using a scart lead so that we could all see the shots we were taking and all that was on the screen. This enabled us all to notice different points which turned out to beneficial to our product. For example, Thegla noticed during one of the shots that the microphone had been lowered and was in the shot. We then re filmed this bit.

We did not need to use many props, however, the props we did use were:

• tissues scrunched on the bed (to show the character had been crying)
• a phone (When the character remembers the text she had received)
• the notes

Some problems we experienced was with the text on the phone, it came up very small and the camera found it hard to focus, so we came up with the idea of taking a picture of it from the newspaper and leaving it widescreen.

We decided to change around the way the notes were received as this would confuse the audience and create suspicion within the trailer. From the notes forming 'WE KNOW WHAT YOU DID', they first create 'DID YOU KNOW WHAT' then when Thegla finally remembers the text she re-orders them to say 'YOU KNOW WHAT WE DID', then finally 'WE KNOW WHAT YOU DID'.

To make the actress cry, Olbas Oil was applied under the eyes which successfully made her cry and make her make-up run. This was applied three times because the scene had to be shot numerous times and the effects had worn off.

Overall, the day was successful and did not run as long as the previous filming day. We learned that the more organised we were the easier our schedule became. The extra concentration put into the organisation of the script enabled both actress and behind-the-scene's individuals to easily work together quickly and efficiently. We did, however, encounter some problems which we were able to sort out without issue.

Group Effort, Written By Thegla Savvides