Filming Diary #2

Saturday 14th January - 2nd day

Around 11 o'clock, we met up at Ollie’s house and we (Ed, Nick, Ollie and Jay) to started filming our short film. When we continued our discussions on the way to Oliver’s house, we talked about what outfit Nick should wear. What Nick wore was a casual light blue shirt, with slightly mild blue jeans with walking boots. It wasn’t the outfit that we wanted because we haven’t bought our outfits yet. We also talked about what Jay should wear; he wore a large black hoody with jeans and casual black and white shoes. After that, we discussed the script to add further alterations and to check if there are any mistakes made in it for a few hours. After that, we set up the microphones, making sure that the microphone can pick up specific noises from a large radius.

We used the microphone to test the sounds by using different specific sound to see how it sounds like when we are filming. We also tested the distance between the person and the microphone to see how far the microphone can pick up the person’s voice. Next, we discussed which place is the best place to film our interview. So far our best place to film our interview is in Ollie’s room because we have to have a suitable background which is a white wall because it allows the person to stand out more in the shot. Also, in Ollie’s room, we don’t have any off-screen voice or sounds like the nature sound or the wind to cover up the person's voice so that we can hear the person's voice much better and we have nothing to distract the filming.

After the interview, we decided to go outside and start filming but it started raining for a long time in the morning so we waited until it stopped to go out and film in Hogsmill forest. It was convenient that it rained because the wet surroundings gave the scenes a more eerie effect, the issue with the rain is that we will have to film our other shots from that environment after the rain otherwise the film would look odd and inaccurate.

When the rain stopped, we went outside and started walking to Hogsmill forest. When we got there, we looked around to see which spot is the best spot to film. We discussed the idea of the background that we want which is a small open area with trees and bushes surrounding us with no interruptions from other people. So far we found a small open ground with trees and bushes surrounding us from every direction with a tree in the middle. After that, we discussed where we were going to put our tripod, how far the tripod needs to be from the actor, where the actors were going to be, where we can get the optimal light to suit us the most along other topics to help us with our filming.

After that, we found a good spot for the camera and the person, we started setting up the camera and we needed to make sure the camera image is set up to the right brightness and contrast. We also set up the tripod making sure it’s stable and balance.

After we set up the equipment, we started filming. The first scene we filmed was a close-up of a side of a tree. The idea was to have Jay to walk pass the tree and the camera picking up only his hips. The camera image needed to be of good quality, bright, very stable and smooth for us to move onto the next part. The lighting that we used was the natural lighting to brighten up our image, it was damp and cloudy which meant that we had the right atmosphere for our shots.

We then discussed the next shot. Again, we talked about where we were going to film, where we were going to put the camera and tripod and what kind of shot we are going to use. The camera shot we used was a long shot showing the outfit and the background. The camera image was taken at an effective position had the correct framing.

The next shot that we practice was a unique shot with elements of close ups. It started on ground level showing the character’s shoes and it then moves to around a 90 degree turn around him while moving up to the characters face showing his facial expression. This shot is a great shot because it makes the scene more interesting and emphasises the character's outfit and face.

After all the filming we decided to take some pictures of each other for our actor description.

Since we stayed indoors for the time we were practicing we were not affected by the cold, dark weather that might impact our shots in the future.