Stages of filming

STAGE ONE

The first time I filmed for this project I collected a lot of footage. At this time I wanted it to be clear that the boyfriend character had died and that the protagonist was haunted by his memory. Because of this, a lot of the shots were based around him talking to her in the mirror. I thought that reflections would be a successful reoccurring motif as I felt they would imply that someone was there without actually being there. However, attempting to create and film reflections was very difficult. I wanted a shot of a reflection in a car window and I tried to create this by waiting until it was dark, I then tried placing black card behind the windows, but the card was visible. I then tried creating excess light using a touch and lights from phones. None of these worked.  I found the best way I could create the impression of a reflection was to film him standing behind her. When I looked at this footage I felt it looked a bit static and basic. I was unhappy with the actress I was using for the protagonist. Also I had experimented with improvising parts of the script and I felt that the footage I was left with looked cheesy and unprofessional. The footage also did not feel much like an art house film. I decided to re shoot all of these scenes with a new actress and a new script.

STAGE TWO

One of the big problems with my first attempt at filming was that the shots all seemed a little boring. I’d used a lot of over the shoulder shots and a lot of bust shots. I wanted to give my film a unique feel so one of the first things I worked on in this stage was the shooting the 36o degree shot. I felt this represented a lot about the relationship I also felt it made the film look more art house.

I also changed the narrative slightly as I decided to make the relationship more ambiguous. I wanted the audience to be unsure about if the character dies or not. I feel the film looks more mature and professional now that everything is not spelt out. I think the layers of meaning work well.

STAGE THREE

I added music to the film. I think the song choice worked well as it sounds dreamlike and distorted and this reflects the characters emotions.

I was worried that the film may end up looking like a music video so I attempted to add more pauses and faded the music in certain places. On the whole however I felt this music was needed as it set the tone for the film effectively.

STAGE FOUR

A Slow motion camera was brought into school. I really wanted to use this camera as I wanted to capture a shot of a candle being blown out. I felt this would be an artistic and symbolic way of representing the end of a relationship. I was very keen to ensure that a wisp of smoke was included in shot as this could represent the emotional hang over from an emotional break up. This wisp was hard to create. I had to burn a piece of small paper behind the camera in order to capture this effect.

It was also difficult to drop the match directly into the candle. I wanted the two flames to resemble a collision however when looking deeper into it represented the fact the two strong personalities of the characters are no separate as they no longer see themselves as pair or couple.