filming process 1

what we need for the day of filming:

• camera -charged



• tripod



• tape



• actors



• props -clothing, dress for the female character and jeans for male character



• locations



• correct weather conditions- not to sunny not raining

On our first day of filming we went to both locations, the train station with Chris Stubbs to film the outdoor sequence with the train and we also went to our indoor location using Rachel Bennett, in the bedroom and the kitchen, which was picked for convenience, as it was at my house. The type of taps that are in the kitchen were also a factor in deciding where we were going to film, as it was important for the positioning of the hand, in the pouring the drink sequence.

In the morning we went to the train station, the weather was cloudy and windy so the lighting was good as where were no bright areas or unwanted shadow, however when filming on the bridge we did have problems with the sound of the wind being in the back of the shots. We first shot the close ups of the shoes walking away on the platform and the extreme close up of the face which were not used in the final cut as the close up of the face was not relevant to the other shots and created more of an intimidating feel which was not what we were trying to create, as the male character is wondering whether she will meet him at the train station.

We also had some shots of Chris walking across the bridge in a low angle looking up at him, however these were on a camera that Lissa owned and we could not upload these shots so they were not used. We also shot the panning close up of the shoes and legs as they walked along the platform. This was a shot that we took many takes of as it a non static shot which was hard to film a steady, slow panning shot that was not jerky, as we had problems with the tripod.

The long shots of the train pulling into and leaving the station were also planned as we chose to shot this in the morning on a Sunday, when we knew there would be less people at the station. We positioned the camera facing towards the train a few minutes before the train was due to arrive and waited until the train pulled into the station. We then turned the camera around a filmed the train leaving the station. We used these shots in our footage as they created questions in the storyline of the film. For example, does the female character meet him at the station ? Do they get on the train? Did she make it to the station in time?

In the afternoon we shot the scenes that were in the kitchen and the bedroom with Rachel Bennett. The match on actions sequence that involved getting a glass of water was filmed may times from different angles such as over the shoulder and a extreme close up of the of hand turning the tap. We felt that these shots were important as this type of non action shots are usually found at the beginning of a film. They focus the attention onto the titles and help create the storyline as well as creating suspense.

We also shot the scene where she is on the bed, reading a book and later falls asleep. These shots were filmed at eye level. There will be a title in between the two shots to create an ellipsis of time as she is first reading the book, then it will cut to a title and then cut back to Rachel asleep on the bed with the book by her side. We filmed these shots on the same day so that we were sure that there would not be any continuity errors. However there is the possibility that we could re-film if needed.

One problem that we had during filming was that our actress was wearing a Glastonbury wristband that she did not want to take off. This was a problem that would affect the continuity of the piece, as even though it is a modern take on the noir genre, it would not fit the style of the film opening. We over came this problem by using bracelets to cover the wristband, so that it was not noticeable. However we did have to reshoot some of the shots as the wristband and the bracelets did sometimes separate.