Producing the Short Film: Fourth Filming Session

As we were editing our film, with the shots we have from our first, second and third filming session, we realised that to be within our limit of 5 minutes we wouldn't be able to finish the story as we initially planned.

 As shown above, in our storyboard we planned for the victim (girl), to go and meet her friends, then introduce one of the characters to have a video camera and show film through that (a typical group of teenagers filming each other). This was to use a third aspect into the film, with the other two being the two dual narratives. Also to end on a 'broken camera' effect of fuzzy black and white. However we didn't do much planning for this after realising we wouldn't have enough time in our film. We therefore had to skip this and go straight to the chase scenes. We were confident with our choice and actually preferred this idea, as it would add to the weird obscurity we wanted to create as to keeping the viewer guessing as to what happens next. Also because it makes the scene more of a dramatic surprise as it will suddenly cut to it.

Linking back to our time scale planning, we had to film this scene at night, as to show continuity of the girl being followed throughout the day. Also because the last scenes we filmed were already dark, so to go back to daylight in the film wouldn't keep continuity. The dark setting will contribute to the 'thriller' theme, creating a nail-biting atmosphere.

We therefore decided to still use our planned local park setting' just in the evening. However when we got there another problem occurred that it was so dark we wouldn't see anything at all through the camera. Even with our torches the light wasn't strong enough to establish what is going on through the camera. We had to use our initiative on the spot, as filming time was precious. We walked around and decided that a near by carpark beside the park would be suitable. The carpark has much stronger lights and created the perfect balance of light for our shot. Below is an example of how dark our first attempts were, and too unclear to use in our film:

We began with some shots of the girl walking in the setting, to set the tone, and to create a build up to the next scene. We then filmed the stalker chasing the girl. This was done by first Myself holding the camera, and running behind Miranda as she ran away, the a shot of the victims feet running, done by Miranda holding the camera herself and filming her feet as she ran. We also wanted to get a shot of her looking back in fear as she ran. The breathing, panicking and footsteps were all emphasised in this scene, we really encouraged the actress to become as frantic as possible. Making the scene highly dramatic and also realistic in that that is how someone would react if the were being followed. We also experimented with the surrounding settings as spur of the moment, recording the actress in a telephone box, of which created a really nice, colourful shot. Below are examples of both:

Overall this was a very successful final filming session. I am really happy that we have cut out some of our planned story (see synopisis), as it makes the whole film more dramatic and mysterious, leaving lots to the viewers imagination.