Our shoot day started off quite smoothly due to our planning
beforehand. We collected all the costumes that we had set out as well as our
camera equipment and headed off to the area in which we were shooting in. We
had also created a shooting schedule and a story board so we knew what parts we
were shooting when, and where they should be shot. Despite our storyboard
saying that our first scenes would be set in an open corridor, on the day of
the shoot we realised that this would be difficult as there would be people
walking back and forth from classes, therefore we would probably get
interrupted. We therefore chose to move downstairs to a more deserted corridor
with no windows. This actually suited our thriller a lot better as it was
easier to dim the lights and make it darker, whereas if we had gone with our
original option there would be a lot of natural light coming in from windows
and doorways. Echoes were also possible in this new corridor, adding to our
thriller as it made everything seem more eerie, and created the effect of her
being completely alone. One other change
we had not anticipated was that on the day we realised that we wanted our
thriller to look as though we were shooting it at night. This was a problem as
we were shooting it in day time and we had many outside scenes. However we
overcame this problem and got a piece of blue assotate and put it infront of
the camera lens, this created a believable illusion that it was dark outside.
The areas which we shot in were typical of a thriller genre.
The first scene was in a dark corridor, with just the sounds of footsteps and
heavy breathing. The scenes we shot
outside were also fast cut, allowing the sequence to gain suspense, typical of
a thriller genre. However, we also used some slow motion on the victim, to
allow the audience to connect with her as well as make her seem more
vulnerable. In general, we found that shots from behind worked well. The reason
for this being that the victim seemed much more nervous as it looked as though
she was always running away from you, making her seem more scared. We included
close up shots of the knife as our murderer walked up the stairs, in order for
the audience to understand that this man has bad intentions. We also included a
lot of shot of his shadow, so as to hide his identity and to allow the sequence
to fall into a murder mystery genre.
Costume wise, our victim was meant to be a Victorian
prostitute. Back then, it wouldn’t have been how prostitutes dress nowadays as
they would be wanting to keep warm as they wander the streets. We therefore
dressed her in many layers, however pinned them up at the front so as to make
her seem more provocative. We also made the outside of her dress red, which
stands for sexual availability, relating to her job. Our killer, who is based
on jack the ripper, is dressed in what an upper class man would wear back then.
He is wearing a tail coat and a top hat. This allows him to blend into the
shadows as all his items of clothing are black. Black could also stand for bad
or evil.
We chose our friend Chessie to play our victim as she has
stand out blonde hair. This makes her recognizable and stand out. Her blonde
hair could also represent innocence. The contrast between her and our villan
who is dresses mostly in black shows a clear division between good and evil.
This is typical of a thriller genre.
In relation to our lighting, in the opening scene we blacked
out the corridor we were using but had light coming from the top of the
staircase. We also used a backlight that shone against our victims back. This
highlighted her and her pathway and in contrast to the rest of the dark
corridor, made her stand out and be the focal point of all our shots. Having
this backlight also allowed there to be shadows, and when our killer walked down
the same corridor, due to him wearing black clothing, made the shadows look
really effective and created an eerie suspense to the scene. I think it worked
really well. The other issue I already mentioned was the fact of not being able
to film at night, having now seen all the clips we filmed, the see through blue
plastic really did the job and created a realistic night effect.
We didn’t have any dialogue in our piece. The only sounds we
included were footsteps and a final scream at the end. However, we managed to
secure our location so that the footsteps echoed, which created an eerie
effect. We also found that because the rest of the scenes don’t have people
speaking, the contrast of her suddenly making a noise at the end and screaming
stands out a lot and is a lot more effective. However, despite there not being
a lot of sound, I think this actually adds to the thriller genre as it allows
us to create tension and suspense. Not only this but the noises we do have are
also typical of a thriller.
The role I played in the filming of our thriller was the
director. I set up the shots and told people where to stand. I also made sure
we stuck to our timing schedule as we had to shoot as many shots as possible
during lessons so that we didn’t get interrupted whist people walked to and
from places. I was also incharge of getting costumes and helping what would be
appropriate for each character as well as carrying the props to and from each
scene we filmed in. I also had a go at the camera as I really wanted to attempt
it.
I think our team worked really well together. We got the
perfect balance between each member in terms of dividing the work properly and
carrying our own weight. We also all managed to listen to one anothers idea, in
order to make sure that the end result was all equally our own. We all had
different ideas as to how we should set up the camera and lighting in order to
create tension, and if we couldn’t decide between us we would ask one of the professionals
as to what idea he thought suited the best.
I am very happy with our end result, I feel as though we all
worked hard to get it and have managed to have the best outcome. I think the
mis-en-scene worked well and it will be easy to edit together.
