Documentary Filming

• medium close shot

• rule of thirds

• high key lighting

• not looking straight into camera

• setting that reflects character

• fades between cuts in speech

Images:

http://archives.library.yorku.ca/pchp/?p=262

http://www.eidolonfilms.com/2011/05/19/three-point-lighting-for-interviews/

Credits and Titles

The way we have decided to put our titles is as follows. 

• Name of distributing studio

• Name of production company

• A film by

• Sound and Music

• Edited by 

• Filmed by/ Cinematography / Director if photography

• Screen play 

•Produced by

• Directed by

• Starring

• Film title

Normally the starring title would come after a film by however we want it later on as our main actress does not appear fully until later on. 

Story Board Images

First Screening

We screened our first draft to a large audience to gain some feedback on what we could do to improve our film opening.

We created a questionnaire for people to fill in, which we handed out at the screening. In the Youtube video below we discuss the questionnaire results.

 

Filming Day 1 and 2

Here are some photos I took when we were on location at Battle Abbey.

First Time Filming

Last night our media studies team travelled through to Battle in East Sussex to film for the first time for our trailer. When we arrived at Battle Abbey School we immediately encountered problems. After setting up the camera and tripod to film our establishing shot of the building we found that due to the poor lighting the camera picked up nearly nothing. 

We tried various ways of lighting the building such as hand held torches and even trying to use a car headlights. We then moved on to trying to film the 'action' for our trailer. This too was a disappointment and we found that to pick up our actor she would have to stand less than a three meters away from the camera. Although we did not manage to film much we did get a feel for the building and thought of some new ideas. 

After the poor nights filming I went home and researched different ways of filming at night. Unfortunately the researched made me realise that it was going to be difficult for us to film at night due to lack of lighting and ability to light the Abbey grounds. However my research did open me up to ways of filming in day time and using editing to make the footage look like it had been filmed at night time. In response to this we have decided to film tomorrow evening and edit the footage and see what results we get. 

Prelim Tasks

Here are our Prelim Tasks.

Emily and Katie's Prelim:



Georgia'a Prelim:

Wills Prelim

Directed Improvisation

Improvisation: Something that is improvised, in particular a piece of music, drama, etc. created spontaneously or without preparation.
We have decided that we want an element of improvisation to our film opening to get the mood and atmosphere we want to portray.

After looking at how the Blair Witch Project was created we found that the film was unscripted other than a short back story the cast were given, the director would plant objects to scare the actors, resulting in naturalistic acting and genuine fear.

Possible Filming Location

Location: Battle Abbey School

Battle Abbey is a historical building located in East Sussex. As well as the medieval architecture the Abbey contains 'the ruins' from the collapsed church. The Abbey has been investigated in recent times due to paranormal scares and ghosts. 

Typical locations of horror films: Typically horrors are filmed in and around historical or deralict buildings and 'haunted houses'. They may also be filmed in places that we see as safe such as homes or schools, which shows the audience that anything can happen, this adds fear.