Filming Process 13th April

Before we started filming our opening introduction, we had to make detailed plans of every aspect of the project. We decided on locations (graveyard, arndale, car park, café, and garden), props (bracelet and letter), costume (dark baggy clothes) and storyline etc. When deciding these, we had to think carefully of whether they were suitable for the project. We had to incorporate effect without using inappropriate content e.g. drugs, weapons etc as we are in a Catholic college and these would be seen as offensive. We came up with the story by talking and taking in and noting everyone’s ideas down and combining them to create our story. Once we had this, we created a detailed shot list which we used as a structure to our filming, this made it easier while we were out filming so we knew what we had to do and this also reduced filming time. When out filming we realised there were contributing factors to having a good shot. For example, weather is extremely important when filming, it sets the atmosphere and also if you are going out filming more than once you must make sure the weather is the same, otherwise this wouldn’t be continuity editing. The weather was poor when filming the graveyard scene, as we were working with expensive equipment we had to make sure it was protected from the rain. We did this by placing an umbrella over the camera and tripod. When filming on the rooftop we made sure that the weather was sunny with some cloud as this is what the weather was like on our first day of shooting on the rooftop.
When we planned our locations we were going to film it on the top of the CSI building in Manchester, however later we found this was not possible due to complications and health and safety regulations. Instead we compromised and filmed on top of the arndale car park which was just as effective. Furthermore we were going to a flash back scene involving an 11 year old witnessing a terrible argument between his parents. However this was not possible, the boy’s parents didn’t want him to be filmed, our first response was to get another person to play the boy but instead we came up with a different, more effective flashback scene involving the character receiving a letter from his girlfriend and then him burning it later on.
The filming itself went very well, we made sure we brought all the equipment back and had contact numbers for college and each other in case an emergency occurred while out filming. We were all very reliable, responsible and mature and worked well in a team, this is essential when doing film work.
Overall we had some difficulties but overcame these by working in a team and using each other’s ideas and opinions. We made sure everybody contributed equally to the filming process and made effort to all areas, adding detail as we went along.