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.