WELCOME MODERATOR

JESSICA FOSTER

CANDIDATE NUMBER 1820

CLAREMONT FAN COURT SCHOOL 64680

Welcome to my blog!

My production team included: Charlotte Coppellotti 1812, Ellie Smart 1859 and Millie Wyatt 1874

My brief was to produce a film opening that lasted a maximum of two minutes. The title of our film is Camera-Shy. Our thriller explores the the life of Sarah and her journey as she deals with a stalker following her every moves, capturing her everyday life on camera. The insidious threat begins to surreptitiously invade Sarah's inner thoughts to the extent she feels unsafe in her own home. Her anxious thoughts are proven rational when she is at her bedroom window and catches sight of a camera flash aimed up at her from across the street. 

FINSIHED PRODUCT:

EDITING

Millie and Ellie used Final Cut Pro to complete the editing of our film. They took charge as they had both used the application before and so knew how it worked and were able to edit scenes with no difficulties. We needed to cut and merge footage together as well as add a pre-recorded audio of our protagonist singing on top of the table-stop sequence. Ellie and Millie also added in our intertitles. 

DIRECTING

We all collectively directed each scene as we felt by collating everyone's ideas we could come out with the best end product. I tended to set out my ideas of what I thought would work in each scene during a group discussion before we went out to film. However, once we were on set, Millie, Ellie and Charlotte directed as I was the actor playing the protagonist and so they could see the action from a different and better perspective. One scene in particular that I enjoyed directing was the final scene where the stalker is walking in the dark and taking pictures of Sarah at her house. This was because I enjoyed working with the street lights at night and thinking about how to best position our actor so we could create an ominous and creepy atmosphere. 

CAMERAWORK

For the majority of the production, I was not behind the camera but instead acting in front of it. However, the few scenes my character was not in, I used an iPhone to film such as the dark room table top sequence as well as the final scene. I was able to create a smooth and professional looking shot as I made sure I had a steady hand when moving the camera and I played around with lighting and exposure features on the camera to get the right atmosphere for the scene. 

ART AND DESIGN

Charlotte took charge when planning and designing features of the production such as the production company logo and the film poster. This was because her Art skills made her the most well-equipped for the job. She was able to draw a rough sketch of what we wanted our designs to look like before using applications such as Photoshop where I worked alongside her to produce what we wanted. 

SET DESIGN

Personally, I provided the props for the scenes where our protagonists was playing lacrosse as I already had the specific sports equipment. We worked collaboratively to create other props such as the photographs used in the dark room scene. We took the photos, printed them out and then laminated them as during the scene, we were placing them in water. During the same scene, Ellie helped to place and order the props for the table top sequence whilst Charlotte organised the positioning of the photos that were taped to the wall. 

CREATIVE CRITICAL REFLECTION 4

CONSTRUCTIONS: FILMING 20TH MARCH

 On the 20th March, we filmed a scene which showed the stalker taking pictures of Sarah in her bedroom from across the street where her house was located. We filmed this scene in Walton on Thames and had to wait until it was dark in order to get the right ambiance we were looking for. We experimented with various different shot types that ranged from wide shots, long shots, pans and tracking shots. 

Overall, the filming session was successful and we managed to attain the desired shots relatively quickly, despite having to make some alterations. Due to the positioning and angle of the camera outside the house, our originally idea of where to place Sarah inside the house didn't work out as she was too high up to be seen. Instead, we positioned her a floor lower and made sure her seat was close to the window in order to capture her in the shot. 

Although our session ran smoothly, we did face some challenges... 

Firstly, the available light from the lamp-posts reflected onto the camera lens and there was a glare that featured in the shot. It was not an issue that could go by un-noticed and so we had to change our camera positioning where the glare caused little to no reflection. Secondly, due to our location, we faced the problem of several cars driving past which caused several issues - the sound of the engine ruined the ambiance and the headlights shone into the shot. We overcame this by waiting till cars had passed and the eerie night-time atmosphere returned before filming as it helped to create a more sinister thrill and enhanced the vulnerability of Sarah. 

One of our shots was a close up panning shot that followed the camera as the stalker raised it from their chest to their face to take a picture. We had to film this several times as it was hard to make sure the pan was smooth and that we didn't get the face of the stalker in shot. Once we eventually achieved the shot, we felt it was really effective in creating enigma and thrill/suspense. 

  

PRODUCTION: SHOT LIST

CASTING: INTERVIEWS

We conducted various interviews with potential actors for the role of the stalker in our production. We asked the following questions in order to gain a better understanding of these actors which led to our final decision for the casting of this character. 

Questions:

• Why should we cast you?
• What is your best quality?
• Have you had any previous acting experience?

This interview process allowed us to come to the conclusion that we wanted a female stalker rather than a male as it gave multiple motives for the stalker as well as making our production stand out. We chose Charlotte to be our stalker as she was a well-experienced actor and her current role as Becky, Sarah's best friend fed into our story-line, making it more thrilling as the threat in Sarah's life was actual a lot closer than she thinks. 

INTERVIEWS OF FEMALE ACTORS

INTERVIEWS OF MALE ACTORS 

REFLECTIONS: PHOTOSHOOT 12TH MARCH

Part of our production includes a table-top sequence which shows the stalker in a dark room, developing and going through various photographs of Sarah that they've taken. In order to film this scene of our production, we needed a series of pictures to act as props. This being said, we organised a session (12.03.21) in which we used a professional high-quality camera to take pictures of our actor playing Sarah. These photographs would've been taken by the stalker in our plot so we had to think about the types of shots we took in order to signify this. Firstly, we took pictures of Sarah in several locations in order to capture the concept that this stalker is following her in all aspects of her life. These locations ranged from sitting on a bench to Sarah sitting in her office as well as on a walk and getting into her car after training. All of our shots had to be long-shots as they were from the POV of the stalker who was taking them behind Sarah's back. To further emphasise the secretive aspect, we thought about camera angles and decided that we needed to capture tree bark in the frame to signify the person taking the shot was hiding behind something and Sarah didn't know they were there. 

In addition to this, we also took some shots of the stalker with their camera (concealing their face through camera angles) but in doing this, we came across some challenges. During filming, we noticed that when filming an over-the-shoulder shot, the weather meant we could easily see the reflection of the stalker on the camera screen which is an identity we needed to conceal. To overcome this, we had to adjust our positioning so there was no reflection. Adding to this, we had to adjust the positioning of Sarah when she was sitting in 'her office' as there was a window between her and the camera that did not open fully. This meant that when trying to take a shot, there was a strong glare from the sun shining on the window, making it almost impossible to see Sarah through it. Because the window did not fully open, we had to lower the angle of the camera to get a clearer shot of her. 

Once we had the shots, we had to upload them to an iMac and print them off so we could use them for our table-top scene. During this process, we edited the photos by adding a greyscale filter which gave off a much more sinister vibe, matching our genre. We then took some of the pictures and laminated them as during our table-top we wanted to have the stalker place the pictures in solution as if they were developing them. They had to be laminated in order to prevent the prints getting damaged and wet. 

HOT SEATING

 Planning: 

• Stalker- have a voice affect on it and blurr the face- we are having to conceal their identity. Sketchy exchange possibly of money to bribe the stalker to speak about it.
• Ellie- just come in from a run to keep in her character.
• Possibly be in the style of a police interview as if people are being questioned about Sarah's stalking.
• Same quesitons for each- cut from each person's answer.

Questions:

Questions to ask Sarah's friends: Rough outline

• What's your name? Where do you work? 
• Relationship- last time you saw her? Friendship? How was she?
• Have you noticed anything is wrong with her?
• Does she seem happy? Is there anyone you think that is jealous of her?
• Does she have a partner?

Questions to ask Sarah: Rough outline

• Do you know Becky and Alice?
• Do you have a bestfriend?
• Do you know anyone who could be jealous of you?