Thriller filming for draft

Filming

 

The first thing we had to do was get the actors/ actresses for the filming and choose a location. Laura-Jo casted her two younger family friends to play the parts of the children who will be on the park and the main actress in it. We also asked a friend from sixth form to play the young mum of the girl as it made it easier for availability when filming. The location we chose was Toton park as it was local and we filmed at a time we knew wouldn't be as busy so we were able to film without regularly being interupted.

We used a video camera and a tripod to film the footage and took the story boards and mindmaps that we had made with us so we knew what we needed to film and in what order.

We took it in turns to film different shots of the footage we had planned, I went first, filming the shots of the Mum and daughter walking towards the camera and also took pan shots of the park and forest. I took mutiple shots to ensure that I could get a good quality and there was also a chance that one shot may have something wrong with it and this way I had back up for editing.

 

Print Screens of the shots from the opening sequence

I filmed an establishing shot of the park to ensure the audience knew the location of the film. I then used a pan to the left to show the positioning of the characters in comparison to the park and as I panned it showed the tree trunks in the woods suggesting to the audience the lack of safety as there may be somebody or something in the woods. The end of the pan introduced the characters into the footage with a long shot of them walking and sharing dialogue together.

 

 I then filmed the characters stopping infront of the camera so the shot was a mid shot showing their head and shoulders in frame. This allows the audience to see them talking and their facial expressions during the conversation.

We decided to add a double pan at this point in the filming as it would represent the point of view of the young girl looking at the park and then a reverse pan back to the girl stood on her own.

 

After this shot was filmed, we repositioned the camera and tripod on to the path which led to the park and the younger actress ran from the previous position in the shot before and ran towards the camera to make it look like a continuous action from different camera angles.

 

I then zoomed in on a puddle to create a close up shot of it and then the actress ran in and jumped in it which represented the childs innocence and usual behaviour for someone that age. This would then make the ending that we filmed seem more creepy as it gives the impression that it could happen to any normal child.

 

I then filmed a mid shot of the child from the back and she shouted 'Charlie' as she spotted her friend on the park, and the next shot was a long shot showing her running towards the park.

 

A long pan shot was then used to continue showing the girl running towards the park from a different angle and showed her opening the gate and entering the park.

 

We decided to add in a shot of her dropping her toy and then zoomed in on it to show her betrail of the toy and this would reappear near the end of the sequence. As the shot zooms in on the toy, it foreshadows that something bad will happen involving that as it is the main focus on the shot showing it's importance and children often have soft toys for the feeling of protection, which the child has disposed of.

 

 We used another long shot to show the children on the swings having a conversation, emphasising the reality of the scene so far.

 We then shot this same scene from a different location in the park to show a variety of camera angles and at the end of this shot, the boy is called by what we can make out is a Mum and told that he must leave the park, leaving the girl on her own.

 We then took many still shots of foot prints left in the bark on the ground which continued so when edited together it would appear as somebody or something walking towards the girl, and as there are no feet making the footprints it makes it more mysterious and thrilling suiting the genre.

The camera shot we then used, tilted upwards and zoomed in on the girl who looks possessed as the boy is stood with the toy and wearing a gas mask which creates an unusual and mysterious vibe and leaves the audience wandering why he has got the gas mask and toy and what he has done to the child. We took a still shot of the girls face which will then be edited to make her look possessed afterwards.

 

 

When filming, we made sure that we used different camera angles and shots such as using the zoom button to zoom in and out of shots and also created close ups and pans. This would make it easier to edit as there was a wider variety of shots to choose from and also looked more professional.

 

Problems when filming

The problem that I found whilst filming, was that the sound wasn't always clear and this would be an issue in the editing stage when dialogue would not be heard clearly. Also I found it hard to ensure that the positioning of the actors and actresses remained the same throughout shots so that it looked continuous, and this is something I need to practice and improve on for my next footage.

After looking through all of the footage we have filmed, I believe that we could of done a wider variety of shots throughout the filming and could have perhaps took more notice of the positioning of the characters and camera when trying to continue action through different angles as not all of the footage links together well and will need to be improved through editing.