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.
