Filming diary for A2 media

1. Filming diary
16/11/14 – Today we began our filming for our horror trailer. We chose to begin our initial
shots at the local community hall because we wanted to ensure there was lots of people
around and available to help. In the first shot (the happy birthday scene) we gathered
everyone around in order to make the scene realistic of Maddie and her family. One
problem we encountered with this was what shot angle to use. This was a problem because
although we wanted to get everyone possible into the shot to fill it out we weren’t able to
get one half of the kitchen in the shot because it didn’t look like an actual kitchen. This side
consisted of health and safety signs and warnings, which you wouldn’t have in your own
home. We overcame this by picking the corner of the room preventing the unwanted side
being in the shot, we also chose a low angle so it maximised the amount of people we could
fit in the scene.
We also filmed a few other scenes, this is because we wanted to keep the consistency of the
same kitchen throughout, and it wouldn’t fit if the kitchen location changed in the trailer.
Character wise, we wanted the same motherly figure. The ‘mum’ who brought out Maddie’s
cake is also used again in a new shot of when Maddie answers the door and the mum chases
her out. One problem we faced when trying to film this shot was that the volume of
Maddie’s voice was too loud in the clip considering she was supposed to be at the door.
However if Maddie stood at the door her voice wasn’t heard. We overcame this by placing
Maddie just outside the door and ensuring the mother spoke loud and clear so that there
was a contrast between who was near and who wasn’t. We also had to reshoot this shot a
few times as we weren’t happy, and realised something was not right.
At first we wanted the mum to step back and looked shocked or scared when Maddie said
her dad was at the door, however when thinking about this concept, we realised that
Maddie’s mum wouldn’t just look scared if her paedophile dad came to the house. Due to
this we reshot it until we were happy with the reaction that the mother should give, this
resulted in the character screaming Maddie’s name and running as fast as possible out the
door. We felt this gave the true effect of what we were aiming for.
On the way home from the community hall we decided to get a few shots in the car, we felt
this could give off the impression of when Maddie gets taken as if she’s being driven away.
As it was night this gave a haunted effect as the headlights were the only source of light. We
did have to repeat this shot a few times as were it was a handheld shot and the car was
moving it was often out of focus. Also we had to ensure that you couldn’t see the camera or
us in the reflection of the windscreen, as it would ruin the whole illusion. We managed to
overcome this however, as we found the correct focus point within the camera and leant
the edge of the lens on the dashboard keeping it still.

2. 17/11/14 – Today we changed the location for the filming and used the main location – the
house – to complete more of the filming in. Some of the most crucial scenes would be
recorded here, as this was where we decided to make the primary set.
The first shot we wanted to focus on was the shot of maddie running out of the house. We
had a clear idea of what we wanted the shot to look like, we just were unsure of the method
to complete this. We wanted to focus on the camera on the feet and let it pan through the
corridor, in order to do this we needed to place the camera on a moveable object. We chose
to use a tripod with a fluid head, which allowed us to create the smooth pan movement.
This gave the quirky angle emphasising the horror theme. However we did struggle slightly
on finding the correct tension on the fluid head in order to create the correct speed for the
desired atmosphere. To overcome this, we were able to shoot this multiple times until we
filmed the one we wanted to use.
Another shot we filmed was from the upstairs of the house, we found a location out of the
spare bedroom window, when using a wide lens we were able to view a large proportion of
the environment and view from the window. One shot we filmed from here was leaving the
large bear in the middle of the road; this gave a sense of mystery and made the audience
question, why? Although only little and not a large problem, we did find a problem with
leaving the bear in the road considering it is road many cars were passing and the bear was
in the way. One of us had to stand down in the road (but out of the shot) so that the bear
could be moved if a car came. Fortunately it was a small country road so the chance of a car
coming was minimal.
Another shot we took from the same location was of maddie running out of the door and
down the street. This was to link the shot of maddie running out of the house into where
she was running too. We filmed it so that we could edit it in so as the door opens and
maddie steps out it cuts to maddie stepping out the door on the other side. This helps the
story line as it makes the trailer more continual and flow better. It was necessary for us to
film this shot again, multiple times until it looked completely realistic. We had to ensure
that maddie was running all the way out of the shot so we don’t see her stopping whilst we
could still see her. We also had her running out with the bear however the shot it is cutting
from in the house is maddie without a bear, this means the trailer has little continuity so we
had to change this to make the trailer flow structurally.