Leanne Stone
Year1 FMP
filming
I had three filming sessions planned for this film. A scene at night, in the morning and during the day, this was over the course of a weekend. The first thing I had to do was prepare where I was planning to film, and then obviously complete the filming.
filming at night
My first piece of recording came with it's issues that I didn't massively consider however I feel this was one of the best bits of filming for me. I was using my room to record the conversation between the two siblings, which didn't look the way I wanted it to. Therefore my first step in filming for this was making my room look a little more like a teenage girls room. Therefore I flipped my sheets to the white side, so that it reflected the light better and so then it better gave the look I was going for. I also got some pink pillows from other rooms to add to the lighter vibe. I then changed the things on the shelf above from Star Wars merch to albums and candles and small accessories. The last touch was putting bottles and random things you would use in a day on the desk, just in case this got in shot. I also took out my guitars and added a pink Harry Styles poster over the frame on my wall. To the right is a before and after of what I did. On this same day I also quickly tided the garden to allow room for the action and filming to take place. This gave it the feel of a general garden.
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The next step was to set-up the lighting I wanted, I already knew how I wanted it in my room due to the experimental research I did involving lighting. I set up my strobe light which I had dimmed with masking tape and pointed this at my reflector therefore making a warm light across the room. I wanted this to resemble to lights from outside lighting up the inside of the room so I kept the curtains open and had the warm light to represent the outside lights. To the left is what the set-up looked like.
The actual filming for the scene between the two girls went well. I was able to get most of the shots I wanted and that I had planned for in my storyboard and shot-list. This included the close-ups of my characters and even managing to use the other plants in my room to create shots with more depth. I found using my phone more difficult than I would have with the camera, as in darker rooms my phone struggle to adjust focus more when there is movement and you can see the camera re-focus however with my camera it adjusts easier. On the other hand, I found using my phone easier as the camera has many more complex settings and things that could go wrong with it as discovered last time when recording the 3rd dimension project. I was able to figure things out a lot more quickly and didn't have to worry about having certain settings on or off. It also took to the light source quite well I feel compared to the test I did with the camera. The issues I did face when using my camera for film was the focus issue and mainly the reflection I was getting from the window pane, this just meant I had to change up some of my angles and shot choices. Other than this I found using my phone camera okay and manageable, however I did struggle not being able to have a wider shot or zoom well. The other issue I came to face with was something I hadn't really thought about. When writing my script, I imagine the characters as real people, with nothing but these thoughts going through their head, however without having actors it is more difficult to bring out these emotions and you struggle to bring these characters to life. I struggled trying to imagine my original vison as I didn't consider the quality of acting, this is a theme throughout, that I will have to cover up as best as possible through timing and editing. This will help bring the emotion I imagine more.
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Recording in the garden during night with Gemma's scenes went well, I feel the lighting I had for the energy ball was good and it proved to be an effective way of recording. The only problem I had here was that the strobe I used as lighting for the ball meant I had to be careful and avoid having the lighting from the strobe visible. It proved somewhat of an inconvenience but when working with the 180 rule it wasn't too much of a problem. I think this was one of the better recording times as I don't feel much could have gone wrong. I had some interesting shot choices. I now just have to make sure I can add the visual effects well into what I did film. I may have to increase saturation in shots with the energy ball as the effect will give quite a stand out light. I think these shots will come out well. I also recording at night in the house with just Gemma. These shots didn't go as well as I had hoped. I am yet to know if they are good as I need to work on the shots in post, trying to make them appear as a sped up video. Obviously I didn't have the time to do this and actually record her sitting there for hours so I'll try and make the cuts to the sped up clock in a way where I can manipulate the footage I have recorded.
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I also during the night, decided I would start recording the flash forward. I liked the look I got from the strobe, however after talking to the other person I needed for the flash forward, getting them over to record was difficult. Therefore I tried it another way in a later filming session. I may resort to this way again however if I cannot manipulate the footage to appear like this in post.
filming in the morning
This recording session was slightly different from the one before as it involved using special effects make-up. The garden was already sorted from the night before and therefore this didn't need to be altered at all. With regards to lighting, the sun was very much in and out and therefore I decided not to use the reflector as the wind was also picking up a little. The biggest problem I faced here was the problem with the special effects. My original plan was to have the stone I purchased embedded into the arm, this way it was very similar to the ball I had used for the energy ball at night and had the same effect. However when trying to put it in, it proved more difficult than we thought. After a lot of trial and error I got my friend to just make cuts and blood and I juped on after effects to quickly see if I could pull something together. After an hour I decided I would be able to do it (I've written more about this problem in the practical problem solving tab) so we went to film after adjusting the SFX.
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I feel this recording session went quite well. I managed to get all the shots I wanted and had planned in my storyboard, and not having the stone meant I didn't have to think massively about the reflection in the stone. I would've liked it if the sun had stayed out as I would be able to get some light in the eye with the reflector. The only other problem I feel I may face is with the portal. This is because the acting and jumping into the portal I feel I didn't get to film as well as I had hoped. I may need to use some other shots to make that more interesting.
filming during the day
Filming during the day was both somewhat successful and unsuccessful. Having not reviewed a lot of the footage yet, I can't come to a complete feel on how any of the recording really went. We didn't have any major issues except that like the morning recording, the sun was both in and out a lot. This meant I couldn't use the reflector in most shots which was disappointing as I thought it gave a nice warm light in my research. I felt there were a lot of shots that didn't got to plan very well, whether this be due to the full abilities of the phone I was using or somewhat to do with the acting. I feel I will need to edit a fair amount and move shots around quite a lot when editing the video in post, something I wasn't massively excepting to be doing. Overall, I feel this did go quite well however. All the SFX was well done and visible and we were able to record efficiently. I am slightly concerned with the cinematic feel however, as it wasn't as professional as I would have hoped. I think I can work well with what I have here.
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One thing I wanted to try in the day filming was recording the flash-forward now. There is more about this in the practical problem solving tab. What I did for this was get the lens I wanted and use the black colour reflector behind the detail I am zooming in on in hopes I could do some editing with this in post to give it the sinister darker and blurry look that would've been easier filming at night. I wanted to do this now as it would've been difficult to get the figures details at night. I don't feel this was very successful but I'll have to play around with it before deciding if I need it at night.
filming for the sped-up scene:
I spent a while debating on how I could create this sped-up scene. The only way I could trust and feel confident about executing this was recording the normal speed of what is happening and speeding it up this way. Due to my film having short cuts in the sped-up scene, I could reuse each piece of the shot each time the speed up comes back in. This scene is very much reliant on how I am able to edit the footage in post and make it seem like a long time.
For the sped-up scene with the character, I simply set up the camera and recorded her sitting doing work, fidgeting a little, moving around etc. I have a few clips of this to mess around with when creating the sped-up scene. This was the best way I could think to do this where I had the most control.
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When recording the clock, I had to think about how I wanted to portray it in this scene. I felt I wanted it passing 11 o'clock on the wall and just the clock with the outside faded out when the actual speed-up is on screen, therefore as I couldn't set up the camera high up I took the clock down and created a low light, filming it for an hour. Just before it got to 11, I put it back up and recorded it on the wall. I need to experiment with this as I am not 100% on how to edit it yet, I can always re-record if this doesn't work. I also had to put a grey background as when taking the clock down I realised it had a glass rim inside so you could see through. The background just makes it feel as if it is still on the wall. It will also be easier to edit if I need to as it's one clear colour.
reviewing some of my shots:
I like this shot for a few reasons. It shows the lighting I was able to achieve when filming, which was a warmer light. It also shows different things around my room I was able to use such as the palm tree to create more depth to the shot, showing other objects that fit with the theme of the room. However this also shows the focus issue I was having whenever there was movement. You can see the camera adjust, which will prove problematic when editing this all together.
This shows both the lighting I achieved when filming outside and how I tried to use as many practical things as possible. Here I used a hole in the ground to act as a crater that the ball had made when landing in the garden, this is a small feature I think adds something to my film. Furthermore, the lighting I was able to achieve I was quite proud of. I feel it doesn't seem to have a massive direction. I was quite proud of this as it lit up the characters well as well.
This shot stood out to me because I felt it was a good use of perspective and for what it is trying to portray, I thought it had a good overall feel to how the figure slowly approached max. I like that Max's feet are in focus and the figure comes into shot, bringing them self and making themselves known to the audience rather then just being on screen from the start. This shot feels invasive and therefore works how I would want it to.
I included this shot to show how the makeup looked on camera. I feel it stands out and looks realistic on the skin. Having the tracking dot very prominent on the arm will make tracking the cut a lot easier. We decided not to do anything on the inside like we would have with the stone as this will be covered and have depth anyway, with the visuals I put over it. I was happy with how the makeup appeared on screen.
Overall I am somewhat happy with how filming has gone. Whilst there are quite a few spots and shots where I will need to do quite a lot of work in post to make this appear professional, there are also quite a few things I was happy with and that went better then I thought. I didn't expect filming this to go how it did however want to get working on it all in post, therefore I can test my video editing skills more to make the story flow, taking into account all focus issues and lighting etc, rather than just focus on the VFX.
recording audio
The next step to getting what I needed for the film, was gathering the audio. I wanted to try and produce most of the audio I need, if not all of it. This may be difficult considering some of the noises I'll have to create. I need to focus on collecting the dialogue, foley and any other sound effects I need to get off of the internet and cannot find myself.
dialogue
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This is an example of the dialogue I was recording, I think this is clear and good quality to put into my film
Recording the dialogue was the easiest piece of audio to get recorded. After we had done the filming for that scene, I gave each of the characters a script and we watched the scene they spoke the line in. We then did a few takes of each line of dialogue so I can choose which one I think suits best. There were no problems with recording dialogue, aside from making sure they weren't too close to the mic when recording louder lines. I felt recording the dialogue after rather than using the one in the recordings would give me more freedom, although it may be harder to fit in and sync up. This was all I had to do for dialogue, and overall I was happy with how it went. I now need to focus on doing the foley for my film.