Account of Shoot Day

On the shoot day we had organised where and what we would shoot, we had the actors ready for the day, we also had the props ready to use when we needed them, but on the day we changed a few ideas because on the day we weren’t able to use one actor since he was injured and other shots we wanted to use we were able to use, which meant we had to compromise but I think we were able to react to this and we found similar if not better shots for our thriller sequence. The change in our plan did have an effect on our final finished piece but it didn’t have a major effect because we still had the same formulaic pattern and plot. The effect we wanted was to thrill the audience, I think by using the camera which wasn’t being held up by the tripod but being held by hand created a grittier look which I think makes the shots much more intense, fast paced and exciting which is one of our main priorities for our final sequence.

We used many different locations around the Hurtwood School campus, the reason for this was because we had the main actor travel around a building shooting at will, meaning he had to enter the building and find his main objective. We used a dark corridor which seems through the audience’s eyes a big boiler room below ground, this location really emphasises the thriller genre because there is little room and no room for escape, which will attract the audience because it makes it more exciting and thrilling. The first location was outside where one shot looked at the house, the house is an old manor meaning whoever owns it is rich and powerful. This helps develop the main bad guy who owns the house and it also shows his greed, if the first shot was of a small house it wouldn’t have the same effect on the audience. Some of the locations we included on the day for instance the main character climbs on the roof, we didn’t plan to use that shot but on the day we thought it was a good idea, by doing this it has added more camera time on the main character and it also develops the thriller sequence further by having this additional location. I would have planned the day better if I had the choice because we had a vague idea of what and where we were shooting but I would have wanted a more definite idea of what we were going to do on the shoot day.

We used a number of different props to help create our sequence; we used a number of different guns such as the sniper rifle at the start and a small pistol which our characters used throughout. We had the body guards dressed in black suits to show that they are mysterious and professional. We had the main character in a grey coat and grey suit this also shows he is professional but because he is in a lighter colour it shows he is the good guy and not the bad, this was important because without this the audience might think that the main character is a bad guy which is contradicting our plot line.

We chose the actors we did because we wanted to make a thriller, by using adult males it targets or target audience and it is much more believable than if they were a group of young men, the characters are experience killers, using young males wouldn’t work and the audience wouldn’t see the experienced killer aspect of the characters. By using young males it would target the wrong audience too, that’s why we used adult males to portray the characters correctly.

We used natural lighting in the first few shots because they were outside, we also used a bare bulb lighting in the boiler room which creates a dark and gritty scene, with little lighting it helps increase the thriller aspect, in typical thriller films there is usually a scene where there is little lighting this is because the audience wont see much therefore creating tension and further thrilling the audience. In all our shots the lighting was used effectively but the outside shots we couldn’t control because of the natural light we wanted to film the outside shots but due to time issues we had to film in daylight which ruins the effect on the breaking and entering feel of the story. Even with the natural light I think we still made a successful sequence with the lighting used.

Sound is key in creating an impact on the audience, it intensifies an action, we had numerous sounds used, for instance when the main character walks through the window the window creaks which adds to the thrill because we do not want him to get caught, another use of sound was when the gun falls out of the characters hand onto the floor, the sound intensifies the falling of the gun and there for emphasises it to show that he has lost his gun making the main character more vulnerable adding to the thrill of the sequence.

I felt that I had a large part in the shoot day, many of my ideas I brought forward and voiced my opinion by saying what would be a good shot or not, we also worked as group so we talked to each other and made a final decision once everyone was happy. We worked as a team but when I thought there was a mistake I pointed it out and we worked together to fix the problem, I felt we worked well individually and we were successful in listening to each other about their ideas to enhance the shots. When filming we gave each other different roles such as director, camera man and sound, by allocating places we could experience each part of filming on the shoot day, we constantly changed places too. I felt that in each position I worked well in, but as a team we understood that we needed to work together to make the best shots possible. Before we shot we decided together whether it was a good or bad shot, and if it was bad how we can make it better, through lighting, the actor’s position and the camera angle and movement, we checked all of these points so that we get the best shot for our sequence.

At the beginning of the shoot day we were unorganised and we weren’t sure what to do, but we sat down we sorted the problems out such as the shot list, props, where we are going to shoot our film and after this the day was much more organised and easier to keep under control which made the day a lot less hectic, stressful and enjoyable, so as the day went on I was more happy with our shoot day. Our shots I think worked well in encapsulating the right effect in showing the audience what is happening while keeping the sequence tense and exciting for the audience.