FILMING OF TODBy Katherine Hole

First Day of FilmingWe filmed a dark room because the darkness added to the mystery and unknown. We thought the darkness (black) represented death and doom which is reflected in our filming as Emilia’s character is murdered in here.

Lighting and CinematographyI had the idea of the flashing lights which I thought could create the disorientating effect that a horror flashback should have. We used the strobe lighting app on my phone to get this effect and hopefully it looks effective when in a flashback. Alec led the cinematography and we all suggested different shots that we thought could show this short sequence in a clear but disorientating way.

FilmingI helped Alec with some of the filming and we worked together by discussing and agreeing on the different shots. Emilia and Tom used the fake blood to make themselves look like they either been attacked (in Emilia’s case) or had attacked someone (in Tom’s case).

EditingOn the same day we all put together different edits for this scene and we decided to use my edit of the flashback scene. We all discussed the clips that we were going to use and how we wanted the final flashback to look. I showed it in class as well so that I could get and use any peer feedback to make our flashback even better.

Filming Day 2On this day I did the majority of the camera work because our main cinematographer, Alec, was acting. The day was successful because we got lots of ideas for good quality shots and how we could co-operate our storyboard into our location. I enjoyed discussing and choosing with our team and head cinematographer the different styles of shots that we wanted.

Filming Day 2- ProblemsAlthough our ideas were cemented and put into place, we had a problem: our tripod only had two legs that worked. Therefore I could not get the quality of shot that I wanted as they were often shaky which I didn’t feel like we could use in our final edit. This was frustrating but I think that it helped us on our third day of shooting because we were clear what we needed to do and we could improve even further on our choices cinematographically.

Filming Day 3On this day we knew what we needed to do and this meant that we could focus on getting the quality of shot that we wanted. It also let us experiment more with the camera and location. This meant that we all came up with ideas that I think will improve the overall look of our final piece.

Editing the Woods SequenceBecause of time restraints, we discussed the look that we wanted for the edit of the woods scene as a group and then I edited it at home (this edit can be watched on my blog). I also worked on sound in this time and found the sound and music that I thought was effective and created the most amount of suspense and atmosphere as possible. I listened to lots of different sounds and music and chose the sounds that fitted the overall image that my group and I wanted for the woods sequence.

Filming Day 4

Click icon to add picture

On this day Alec, our director of photography led the filming of our title sequence. We had already acquired some shots that we thought would look good in the titles so this helped inspire us to come up with ideas and locations for the filming of these titles.

Filming and Editing Day 5On this day we recorded our car sequence as it was the best day for our driver. However this was a problem because it as the day before our first edit was due in. This meant that we had to split up and delegate the tasks. Alec, Tom and Emilia went to film the car sequence whilst I edited. As a team we watched my edits for the wood scene and the flashbacks put together and discussed the things which we liked and points for improvement. Then we separated and I worked on the titles (with Alec’s previous ideas and template) and I worked on the sound and the transitions so that the edit looked fluid.

Final Day of Editing for the First Draft■Once we had the footage for the car sequence we

could put the whole piece together. I worked with Emilia and Alec to choose which bits of footage we liked and thought worked well. They both then had to leave due to other commitments and I finished editing our first draft of our final piece.

■The car sequence doesn’t look very effective and I struggled to find footage to make the edit fluid. I think that this scene may need to be filmed again however at least we know the overall look that we want.