1. Filming Day 2 – Train
and Street Shot
By Liat Shamash
2. Both battery's were fully charged and all the equipment
was ready to go. We were thinking in school that it gets
dark really early so we should probably film in St Albans
which is 5 minutes on the train rather then 50 minutes on
the train to get to town.
We received a brand new tape from the teacher and we
had to blank the tape for an hour so the battery was
wasted for an hour.
The schedule will still be the same but we would just have
more time and be less rushed with travelling.
So Jess left school and went to get Poppy and made sure
she was dressed and her make-up was done then made
her way to Radlett over ground train station. Megan and I
had all the equipment and got there before Jess and Poppy
and got all the equipment ready, We took most of the
equipment except the red light.
Pre-Filming…
3. We all arrived, Poppy was ready, the equipment was
ready and we started to film.
We did varied long shots, close-up shots and played
around with the focus.
We all took it in turns to film our different ideas and
shots. I filmed some shots of Poppy walking towards
the camera and coming into focus.
I also filmed some shots of her standing still singing
along standing by the yellow line.
How we shared filming and what I
filmed…
4. We played the music on Jess's phone and Poppy held it
then put it in her coat.
The weather was good and helped with the effect of
coldness and sadness. It was not that cold as we all had
coats and were moving around a lot.
After filming for a bit we realised the battery was running
out so we changed it. Then once we were basically done
with doing shots of her walking back and forth towards the
camera, standing still in different places on the platform,
sitting down on the bench, some shots looking sad and
some shots singing along we realised the second battery
was starting to run out too.
So we quickly turned it off then discussed whether it was
worth it to risk it and go to St Albans and do the street
shot or think of something else and film it on a different
day.
Props, Weather and Battery’s
5. We decided to carry on with the filming as we had to get it
done and we would see how much we could get done and then
sort it out if we do not have a lot of footage.
We arrived at St Albans and found the street we wanted to
use.
We realised the tricky thing we thought about before was a
problem, when using the tripod and trying to move the
camera along with Poppy walking the camera shaked as the
floor was not straight.
As we also had to work fast as we did not have a lot of battery
we just did quick still shots of Poppy singing the whole
song, floor shots, close-up shots also hand held shots walking
in front of Poppy as we could not use the tripod as it was
bumpy.
Soon later after all having a go filming the battery ran
out, however we felt confident as we did get quite a bit filmed
on the street but we had lots of good footage at the train and
bed shots and we would get really good piano shots too.
Deciding to take the risk…
6. Certain shots I filmed during the street shot:
- A long shot then zoom in of Poppy sitting on a
wall then walking towards the camera
- I attempted the tripod/dolly walk in front of
Poppy but it was too shaky so was unsuccessful
- A run through the whole song on close-up of
walking in front of Poppy hand holding the
camera and her singing along.
What I filmed…
7. Battery's ran out
It was getting dark so might have to change story-
line a bit.
The smooth tripod walk shot we wanted was not
successful so we had to hand hold camera which
might not look good either
What Went Badly?
8. We got a lot of footage at the train station
Even though we did not film a lot of street shots
we still have good footage at bed shot and train
and we will get good shots at the piano shot so it
does not matter
We all had turns and worked well together and
filmed our ideas that we all had of good shots.
At this point Poppy was really strong with
knowing the lyrics so lip-syncing will be good.
What went well?
9. We would of loved to have battery to film more
and experiment more but we didn't but it does
not matter we still felt that filming went really
well and we are happy with the footage and how
well we worked together.
Final Thoughts
