Filming

I have now finished filming. The first location was in my basement at home and required only me and my actor so was relatively easy to film. I had already planned this scene visually by making a short clip previously as can be seen in my post titled "Film test 1" so I was confident about what needed to be done. And also the effects that’s could be achieved in post production. As this is the most visually intriguing part of the film I wanted to make sure I got it right. The most technically difficult thing about this scene was getting the lighting right. I needed very small amounts of light to only illuminate very small parts of the characters face to achieve the effect i had envisaged. I ended up using a small desk lamp and holding it myself whilst constantly monitoring the screen on the camera. I am happy with the footage for this scene although i don't plan to begin editing this until after my first hand in. This is because this is not the part of the film I want to use as my pilot and to get the desired effect as seen in my pre visualisation I will need to do a lot of editing. I am also thinking of following a tutorial from www.videocopilot.net to generate "Light Streaks" But this seems like a very complicated process and will involve a lot of learning on my part.
The next scene was filmed out doors in a wood. My main worries were alleviated when the horrible weather we had been having cleared up and left us with a very still day although a little over cast. I had a little trouble lighting the hiker characters face against the sky as he looked down and had to get someone to constantly hold a reflector to try and get more the light from the sky. This is still my main concern about this footage as his face still has some shadows but I think there is enough definition there for this to be acceptable. Other than that everything went to plan. The woods we filmed in were very hard to walk around as the floor was covered in bracken and hidden holes but we managed to film all parts without injury, including making my actor run around carrying a HDV camera! Something I was particularly concerned about. I have captured all my footage now and am enjoying seeing it come together as I begin to edit it and see it in context. Here are some stills from my shoot.