Flashback shots: Bath

• The third set of flashback shots are in the killer's bath.
• These are simply a series of close up shots of shallow water in the bath, as well as silhouettes of the killer's hands and feet in the water.
• I felt that some less gory flash back shots were necessary, in order for the gorier flashback shots to have a bigger impact.

• Overall, I feel that these shots were successful, as the content is not particularly macabre, and this will allow for the shots containing wounds to have more impact.

Shooting Script and Evaluation

Date of filming: 2nd January 2014
Locations: Bexley Village, the bridge on the A2

3 pm: Meet at Bexley War Memorial and begin prep for filming e.g. preparing mise-en-scene on the actors

• Mise-en-scene included the stalker's costume and props (all black clothing and rucksack) and the victim's costume (coat, jeans and boots)

4 pm: Begin filming stalking scenes around Bexley Village and bridge

• Shoot establishing shots, POV shots, mid shots, over the shoulder shots 

 

For reference, this is the scene from the storyboard that we plan to film:

5 pm: Finish filming


Evaluation of filming
This session did not go as well as we expected because we lost the light quickly and it became too dark to film successfully, which means we will have to reshoot and reconsider what time we start filming in the future. There were also inconsistencies in the shots and difficulty with camera settings, which will be changed for the next time we shoot.

On the other hand, the session was beneficial to us as we were able to see which camera angles would work the best in these scenes and will be able to use them in the reshoot. Our actor and mise-en-scene were also prepared quickly which will be useful in future filming sessions. After this session, we now have to reconsider how long it will take us to film the rest of our opening and also how early we should begin preparing and shooting in the future.

Flashback Shots: Blood in Bath

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• At certain points in our opening, the camera flickers to shots that tell the audience about the killer's past (their past victims etc).
• Included in this are shots of a bath with blood in it, referencing to the fact that our killer bathes in blood to stay young.
• As these shots will not last for longer than a second, I felt that there was no need for a high quality camera.
• All of the shots were close up shots, as the focus of the shots was on the blood, and the body from which the blood is dripping is only alluded to.

• Some of the shots were of blood dripping onto the white surface of the bathtub, inspired by the opening credits of American Psycho.
• These were created by simply dripping fake blood from a spoon.
• These shots were the most difficult, as it was important that the shadow from the camera and the spoon could not be seen within the frame.

• The other two shots were of blood pouring towards the plughole.
• These shots were created by
• I feel that these shots are more effective for the horror genre, as there is a greater amount of blood.

• When the shots are put together in the opening, they will only appear briefly, and will flicker between flashes of white, similar to this short clip:

  Overall, although the shots were not of a very high quality, I feel that this was a successful session, as the shots did not need to be of a very high quality due to the fact that they will only appear for a very brief amount of time.

Filming Flashbacks

Filming: Noose Flashbacks.

I used the noose I had previously made and and put some fake blood on it to start off. I held the noose up and flickered a torch on and off and filmed two different lighting and angles at first.

Then I put fake blood on my had and took a close up shot of it holding the noose whilst flicking the torch on and off as well.

I also did another close up shot of where I put some more fake blood onto the bottom of the noose and waited for it to drip off. When editing this I had to speed it up as it took a while to fall and also looked more effective.

Final Clip.

Overall I thought that the filming for this part of the flaskbacks was really good, but because I filmed it portrait I will need to refilm it another time. I also think I could include more shots and different angles of it to make it more effective including more close up shots to make the blood on the noose look thicker.

Filming: Re-shoot of Flashback scenes

Flashback scenes: Noose filming.

When I last did filming for the flashbacks of the noose for our film opening I filmed them in a portrait layout and so this would not be able to be used when editing all of the other clips together. So I did a re-shoot of these flashbacks but instead filmed them in a landscape way so they could be edited with the rest of the film opening. 

I did exactly the same thing as I did for the last filming and edited them together so that they were faster and quicker changes so it looks like a flashback.

Shooting Script: Reshoot

This filming session is a reshoot of the session from the 2nd January, shooting this stalking scene from the storyboard:

Date of filming: 11th January 2014
Locations: Bexley Village, the bridge on the A2 (Bexley)

3:50 pm: Meet at Bexley War Memorial and begin prep

• Prepare actors' costumes: stalker will wear black jeans, a black hoodie (with the hood up) and the victim will wear a jacket, jeans and boots 
• Additional mise-en-scene, e.g. stalker will carry a black rucksack
• Move to filming locations after prep is completed

4 pm: Begin filming stalking scenes first around streets in Bexley Village, then move on to filming on the bridge. Shot used will be:

•  Establishing shots to establish the locations
• Mid shots of the victim framed by the locations
• Shots from the stalker's POV as she follows the victim
• Over the shoulder shots of the victim

5 pm: Finish filming

Changes we will make:

• The camera settings will be adjusted to work with the low lighting we plan to film in
• We will begin filming slightly earlier to use our lighting to maximum effect for as long as possible

Through this reshoot we are aiming to film more useable and better quality footage than our previous shoot by taking into consideration the mistakes we made last time and ensuring that we do not make those mistakes again.

Flashback Shots: Wounds

• More flashback shots that needed to be created are shots of the wound the killer creates to drain each victim's blood.
• I created a wound on my arm using tissue and liquid latex, painted over with acrylic paints and with fake blood poured into it.

• I filmed a series of close up shots of the wound in low key lighting.
• (I used a handheld torch).
• I then increased the speed of each shot so that the resulting sequence would be confusing and unclear.

Overall, I feel that the result is effective, as the low quality of the shots (they are grainy and unfocused) lends to the ambiguity of the sequence.