Account for shoot day

Account for shoot day

When we arrived at the set that we had prepared the night before, we were told my Matt that he had another idea for how our set could be built. This new idea would ensure that the set would have a lot more room to film in and we could also put some more props that we didn’t have planned in the first place. We built the set with the same props, but we used the wall of the studio as it looks a lot like a nuclear bunker wall. We finished the re-build of our set an hour after we arrived on set. The change of the set was an effective one as it meant that we had a lot more space and shooting was a lot easier. There weren’t many changes to our storyboard however we had a lot more tracking shots than before and we also had a following shot. We cut the part at the beginning when the president is approaching the room. The war thriller and the fact that it is set in the present day definitely appealed to our set target audience. The Raj tribe was still part of our target audience and the teenage/early twenties, due to the action part of our thriller meant that this audience was still targeted.

We built a set in the studio because there weren’t many rooms in the school that made everything look like a nuclear bunker. We also couldn’t shoot in a nuclear bunker. We did shoot one part in a corridor underground without any windows as it made it look a lot like a bunker due to its concrete walls and a lot of pipes going through the corridor. There were a lot of shots that worked very well on the day. The tracking shot that was used at the beginning was extremely effective as it set the scene for the first part of the thriller. The extreme close up of Steven at the beginning was also very effective. None of these shots were originally planned. We also used a variation of shots in the corridor in the shoot our scene such as the use of having a hand held camera and tracking Paul. We also had shot where the camera was on the ground, which was almost a low angle shot. This shot displayed the gun being kicked away after the assassin (Hendricks) was shot. These shots worked extremely well and close ups of Steven and Simon worked extremely well in our thriller. We improved our film with a lot of experimental shots such as the hand held shot and the tracking shot at the beginning. The reaction shots of Simon reading through the papers, worked very well and also was very useful when editing as we could put it in at any time. If I had the choice I would have done a close up on Simon typing in numbers onto the telephone and I would also do a lot more jump cuts to show that the security guard is up to something.

Originally we were going to have an army costume which a general would wear however the actor that was playing the general wasn’t available anymore so we only had an ‘advisor’ and the president. We had the president and the security guards wearing suits and these were the only costumes that we had. Most of the props that we used were added on the day of the shoot. We knew that we were going to have a computer on the desk along with a telephone and presidential documents. The computer showed that the thriller was set in the present day and this was re-iterated by the telephone. There were also guns that were used by Paul and the assassin. This showed the thrilling aspect of it. The political aspect and also the war feature of the thriller were shown by the multiple televisions. These televisions actually displayed a capture of a computer game called death con. This game was perfect for our thriller as the graphics that are used in the game show nuclear weapons being used and there are also countdowns. This was perfect as our thriller is about calling of a nuclear attack. These images were shown on £ televisions and one projector. This really created a scene of a nuclear bunker, which made the thriller come alive. The blue ties that the advisor and the president wore showed that they were in trouble and facing crisis. The red tie that Paul was wearing illustrated that there was going to be violence in the thriller.

The casting was a relatively hard process. We had to be very careful when selecting our cast, as the actors had to look quite old, this is why we picked Simon as our president as he is a middle-aged man. We also used Stephen who looks a bit older which was useful as most advisors do look like they are older. We needed to have younger actors to be members of security. Paul was ideal for this role as he is in his early twenties. Hendrick also suited the role. As he was the assassin he had to have ethnic features. We had to choose an actor like this so that there is a reason to why he was assassinated. He also looked like he was being paid to do something due to the fact that he looked younger. I feel that the actors were chosen very well, especially as we didn’t have a wide range of people to choose from.

We didn’t have a lot of lighting in the studio because we wanted to make it look like it was as underground as possible. The light that we were using came from a lamp and there was also a key light shinning down on the American flag. This was used to show that they were in America and the low light also made it more dramatic and illustrated that were in a bad situation. Our lighting was working extremely well until the light caught on fire and broke. After trying we realised we couldn’t fix it so we put a light inside the lamp to try and make it look like it was before. The low light created a lot of tension in the studio and again showed something bad was going to happen. In the corridor the lighting was relatively bright, this was used as there is a positive outcome in the corridor (the assassin was shot).

We had quite a lot of sound in our thriller. Most of the sound was dialogue. There was also the sound of the door slamming and the running up the stairs. The sounds in the corridor made it seem like they were in a real chase as there was panting from Hendrick running away. The sound of Paul walking down the corridor also created a lot of suspense. The dialogue that we used in our thriller also created a lot of suspense. Especially the part where Steven addresses Simon; this part created a lot of suspense as most of this was improvisation and the speech that he came up with was incredible and made the whole scene come alive.

My role was mainly to operate the camera and when one person did operate the camera, we would also direct the scene. Operating the camera was incredibly fun as we were able to experiment with a lot of different and move the camera around to see where the shot was most effective. I also sat at the monitor and I would then tell the cameraman whether the shot was good enough to move on to the next shot. There was a great importance of this role as I was the one that would say if it was good enough or if we needed to do it again. I really enjoyed this as it came with a lot of decision making. I would also tell them if the positioning of the shot was good enough. I think that i did this job incredibly well as it came out very nicely when we were editing and I can remember saying to do some shots again that weren’t as good which made a real difference to the editing stage. When operating the camera ordering people where to sit and where to position the props was also a key role. The cameraman had to make sure that the continuity was perfect as well. When we looked through our footage the continuity was perfect.

We worked very well as a team and we operated on set very constructively. We all knew what we had to do within our roles and therefore the filming process was a lot easier. We all helped each other when we had to do things such as bubble the camera and also adjust the camera to a certain height. The moving of the camera around the set was incredibly easy to do as we worked so well as a team. The first shot that we did was best example of teamwork. We all had to do the right thing at the right time to make sure that the shot was good. Holly had to wire bang and Ollie had to move the seat back and forth at the correct pase. My job was to tilt and pan the camera so that I could capture everything in that one shot. It took a few attempts but it turned out to be the best shot.

I was very extremely happy with how our thriller turned out. The footage that was produced had some incredible shots. We met our expectations and included more shots and ideas than we had before. It was incredibly successful. The lighting and the dialogue that was included were amazing. The tracking shot worked very well and so did the chase scene at the end. We put forward the right idea and encapsulated the right effect for each shot.