Filming Narrative

Completed on: 17th October

Today I filmed the narrative for our production. Due to work and other commitments the rest of the group couldn’t make it so it was just me, the actors and Jon Campbell, another media student who helped me with camera work.
The filming went well, it took up most of the day and we were able to get almost every shot that I wanted. In the end we got about an hour of footage which is more than enough to work with. More importantly, I made sure to get a lot of different and varied angles so that we could produce the dramatic, emotion based narrative we’re hoping for.
As well as this, I was able to try out some more challenging shots which I hadn’t done before. We used a shopping trolley which I sat in to film the tracking shots we needed and for the aerial shot we wanted I used a ladder to stand on, leaning the camera over and swaying it for a dream like effect. These shots were quite hard to get because of the control needed and the equipment we had to use. Jon was pushing the trolley with me in it and supporting me on the ladder.
One of the main problems we had filming was getting the actors to produce convincing performances. They knew what I was expecting and were happy to do it but nerves sometimes got the better of them. For the kissing scene we had to agree that they wouldn’t actually kiss, which changed the way I shot the scene drastically. Instead of using close ups and longer, more intense shots I had to use mid shots that moved away from them quickly, something that I think will affect the video. Another scene we had trouble with was the falling scene, in which the female lead trips over. She was afraid to fall (understandably) and so the final shot isn’t that convincing, but it will hopefully do for the final film.
Overall however I was happy with the performances and the filming process. It went well and I think the final film will have a good, solid narrative that will focus on emotions and drama like we wanted.


Group members (and candidate numbers)

Niall Lucas – 3125
Jordan Perrett – 3161
James Nash – 3148
Lewis Taylor - 3206