Editing so far

So far we have shot the first section of the scene which is situated inside meaning that we can get on with editing while we decide a time and day to carry on with more footage.
The editing of the film has been interesting and easier that I thought although there have been a couple of debated on how to show certain things and when to cut to the next frame.  The best part about this part of the project is that you are able to merge together separate clips creating a story as it all comes together.
The thing I am finding particularly difficult at the moment is editing the sound as it is hard to connect the film to the sound although every time we filmed a clip we used the method of clapping before hand making it a lot easier to match the sound taken from the video recording to the sound on the camera. A lot of the sound in this opening is atmospheric and sound of movement. I didn't realise how important this sound was as there is very little dialogue used.
So far we have not managed to match music to the film although we are setting up a meeting with Aletia as she is able to create simple musical soundtracks to use as a subtle background noise. The crucial thing about this is increasing the intensity of the music at the right points in time to fit the scene and build suspense. If this is wrong it is very noticeable and can be distracting.

Planning ahead

Next, we were planning on filming the rest of the indoor scenes on the following weekend although the girl which we are using is not able to film on this day meaning that we need to work are;ind her schedule. Our plan is to film through out the week hoping that we can get to my house from school in time before it starts to get dark.

Although this is not ideal, we might have to film the indoor scenes in the weekend afterwards. We are bale to film the outdoor scene in the woods through the week. This means that we can edit all of the wood scene before we continue filming in the house getting a lot of the editing out of the way and so we can foes on the soundtrack.

Days Filming

We started filming last Sunday at around 1pm shooting all of the scene which is located inside. We were unable to complete all of the footage although we completed all of the shots which Conor starred in making it much easier to shoot the rest of it. There were some difficulties with some of the equipment that we wanted so we did not have any lights. Although this was not ideal my house has lots of windows allowing natural light in making the scene more realistic and less set up. In this case I think that this factor did not effect our filming too badly. The  only issue that we had with the lighting is that we did not take into account that at around 4pm it gets significantly darker meaning that we had to end filming early.
We were not supplied with a boom pole making parts of the scene difficult regarding the sound although listening back on it, it seems to have worked fine. The main hurdle which we did not anticipate would be not noticing the boom coming in and out of shot which was made obvious when blowing up some of the footage on the computer.
Over all the filming was smooth and easy to do, we shot everything at least twice using different angles and making sure that we only needed to film more and not go back to other things we previously shot saving a lot of time. We spent from 1 till 5 in the evening. It was interesting to direct and shoot a film as you have a vision in your head which you are attempting to portray on the camera.

Final Shot List below

Initial Shot List

Click on the link below to see our initial shot list…

Practical lesson

Five points to remember when filming -
- be aware of possible reflections meaning that in the shot you are unable to see people in the background or the camera
- record at least 30 seconds of atmospheric sound before you record
- make sure that there isn't a loud noise when shooting things especially outside
- when filming outside be aware of where the light is coming from, if the light is shinning into the camera it will overpower the shot
- make sure that the boom is close enough but not in the frame when filming

Style and Tone

As our film is a physiological thriller, this means we want it to feel very realistic.  This is why we have chosen to do it in an everyday house, with no overdramatic unrealistic props.  We don't want the horror thrill side to the film to be exaggerated either, for example by using over dramatic sound or by the way we dress the kidnapper, just so it doesn't make the style seem cheesy and cliche.  We want the clip to have a social realist genre, and emulate a realistic tone, making it more creepy, as from films we have seen in the past, the scariest are when it seems as if it can happen to you.  

We took inspiration from films like Lovely Bones, which we have referenced also in the costume ideas, The Call, and also Prisoners.  These films all have a similar kidnapping scene in common which seems realistic as ones on a field, one in a carpark, and one on a street.  So we thought we would reference these films and see what tones they emulate as they carry the tone we want.  

(picture above from the kidnapping scene of The Call)

The Disappearance of Alice Creed is also a kidnapping film which emulates the style we want.  In the poster for it i thought it showed the tone of the film well.  The colour palette of the film is also useful to us as the pale greyish colours give a sense of gloom that would be useful to use and gives the film a general mood to it.    It also has a all British cast, which gives it the urban feel we want so we think this will be  useful film to refer to

IW