As I want this to be the best possible project as I can make it. I thought getting some test shots done prior to the actual filming dates would definitely be useful in finding potential issues and learning how to deal with them now. Below is the result of one night of trying to film the opening scene of the film.
Before even filming this there was a massive issue. A global pandemic in which the whole of England was in a major lockdown for. This meant that I was unable to film not only an interior shots but also any scenes which featured more than one person. This was a major problem as almost every scene is inside and feature more than one person in it. This limited to what I could film so the above footage is subsequently on the short side. Of course, as lockdown eases I'll be hopefully able to try out more scenes.
Another issue I also encountered due to Covid was that the actress I had got to be in the film was unable to come for the test shoot due to her waiting on a Covid test (she came back negative two days later but we all had to be safe). This is not a massive issue as I'm sure I'll plan to do more test footage for the film. Which means I can get her at a later date.
But now onto things I found out while actually filming this:
Filming at night - The very obvious issue with filming at night is that there is a lack of light. This created grain in the second shot, the one where the bike is taken, along the pavement. When we were filming it, the ISO was already very high. As this was still a problem it lead me to believe that if we had brought more artificial lighting on set then that would've alleviated the grain in the image.
The field - On the night, I had planned to film another scene in which the character had gone to a field at night (for a later scene in the film). We had already done the cycling scene first and went over to the field that we had arranged to use for filming. As this was in the countryside there was a lack of natural lighting (from street lights etc.) so when we had gotten to the field it was pitch black. This meant the camera couldn't pick up anything even after trying to experiment with the torches we had brought to try and create some light. Ultimately, it didn't work so I decided that we would revisit the scene at a later date. From this time, I learnt if we headed down to the field at an earlier time then not only would the field be actually easier to get to but we could get some actual footage for this scene.
Dolly - On the day of shooting we had not brought the longboard in which was going to act as a make-shift dolly for certain shots. As we were unable to bring it, we only could use more static, locked-off shots. Bringing a dolly could've added more variation to the shot types. For this scene in particular, the character is riding a bike which lends its hand to more movement within the shots. Even just trying out these certain types of shots, would be a worthy learning experience.
To conclude this test footage, I had learnt so much (as above) which won't only just help for this film in particular but that would help on other films that I make. I also aim to do more test footage, the field scene especially as that is something that can be filmed in the current lockdown. Hopefully, I will have time to do some test runs for the inside scenes. But with hand-ins being not so far away it may be harder to find time to organise and shoot said test shots but I will just have to find that out once lockdown is eased.
Test Footage 2
After filming the first scene (above) it was a great motivator to go out and film another scene from the film. As I wanted to take full advantage of the uni’s equipment that is available to be booked out, I went and got the Sony FS7 camera. The FS7 is a camera that can shoot in 4k which even though my own eyes can't see in that definition, it would make the whole shoot look that extra bit better.
This was also partly done due to deadlines coming up and I realised I wasn’t going to get the film I wanted done before it was expected to be handed in. I knew I was going to have to make big adjustments to the film and due to the area I lived in jumping out of the pan that was the circuit breaker lockdown and into the fire of tier 3 lockdown; these adjustments were going to be big ones.
The first change I realised that I would have to make is that if I wanted to have a film to hand in I would have to change the cast up. Trying to find people to act in it and getting them to travel to destinations were going to be difficult due to the further implementation of fines for travel that is deemed non essential. The cast of the film was going to be the classmate I had gotten for the first shoot, and me and Liv who were behind the camera (Director and D.O.P respectively). There are only three characters in the film so this plan was hopefully going to work out well. I am saying this as an explanation to the fact that I stuck with the same person I had in the first test shoot and probably will be sticking with the plan of having us as the cast.
To get the most obvious issue out the way to start off with as I’m not trying to write a defamation piece about me and my work, I didn’t learn from last time. The ISO was way too high and hence why there is a lot of grain in the shots. This was completely my fault and I really should’ve done better. So to whoever is reading this please try and imagine that the grain in the darkness does not exist. This is not the final cut, this is just a tribute. I am trying to focus on what was done well and that’s what I plan to do.
Even though this shoot we were able to film with a very much advanced camera, my main focus was composition of what was in the frame. I had several shots in mind and where to place the character in. The scene focuses on her being all alone in the field, and the shot types were chosen in attempt to reflect that.
This particular shot is one of the first shots I had in mind when I was writing this scene. By using a wide lens the character looks very small in frame. This is also why I had chosen to do this scene in a field. There was a road running adjacent to the field but we set up everything so that all the shots would not feature any cars to further create the feeling of isolation.
That feeling is important for this film as in some of the scenes there is very minimal dialogue so the perception the audience has over certain shots and movement is vital. There isn’t anyone telling you how a person feels so you have to make your own interpretations. A connotation of someone being small in the frame might make you believe that that person is vulnerable for the reason being that they are not big and imposing on the frame. It’s the conflict of the character being very small in the frame that signifies that they are not important battling against the fact they are the only thing in frame so your eyes are going to naturally focus on it.
Because we had made the choice to go with a wide angle lens the time that the camera is rolling in this one shot is much longer than any other shot in both this test footage shoot and the first one. I view this as a success execution of what I wanted to happen. To give a metaphor that I hope makes sense; a film is like when you are writing an essay. The shots are the lines within the essay and you’ll have a hard time getting marks if you don’t alter the length of the lines you write. This shot is one of the longer ones (19 seconds) and is followed by a shot that is under 5 seconds. This variation of shot lengths creates a much more natural flow to the film.
I think lady luck massively helped out with this shoot and this shot in particular. The skies colours were really vibrant when we were filming and this created some visually aesthetic shots. These colours went hand in hand with the lack of artificial lighting from such sources as street lights and traffic. I’ll talk about this in the next section.