Account of Shoot day

The day began with a meeting between the group to decide whether to film in London or to film at another location closer to school. The reason for this is travelling up to London would take 1 and a half to 2 hours this meant that our filming time was very limited. Instead we chose to film at a location that was five minutes away. We then gathered all the props and set off to the location. When we got there we realised the original storyboard and shot list were going to have to be changed to suit this new location. Originally the idea was that the flat would be modern with few rooms. However when we got to the new location it was a big old fashioned building with long corridors, two big stair cases and lots of rooms. None of the rooms fitted what we needed for our original plot also none had an adjacent bathroom. So we decided to use what we had and change the plot to fit around the new location. This meant the video would look more realistic. The change in plan meant that instead of the whole video being set in 1-2 rooms, we would use most of the corridors and stairs in the whole house, creating a chase scene around the house. This change in plan made the video into more of an action thriller then intended before, however the action actually made the video a lot more intense. We prepared well for our thriller having on paper a storyboard and a shot by shot list knowing approximately how long the video would last for, but changing the location and the plot meant we would change a lot of the shots and what we would be filming. The idea of our video was very much more thriller than horror.

We set up on location; there wasn’t much to set up thought because we were filming in corridors. However we did have Lillie at the beginning or her laptop writing things down and looking at paper, then she reads something and panics. This already gives us the impression that she is a hacker, also when she is running away she always keeps the laptop with her this shows that the laptop has important information on it. Other props we had were the gun and radio on Will. The gun conforms the idea of a thriller and the fact that she is in danger. Also the radio he’s holding shows that he’s not working on his own and could set up the rest of the film. These props attract the target audience by creating action and mystery, which leaves the audience always thinking and in suspense, this is part of the thriller genre. The mise en scene that we created related to the thriller genre because we created the mystery and also the action for example the fight scene. Most of the shots we chose were long shots of corridors this was meant to show the chase scene, showing how close together they were, this created suspense.  Throughout the chase scene we used handheld camera this increased the tempo of the chase. The new ideas improved our video because it makes it more intense and the audience would be more engaged in watching the video. Also the action would make the video more of a thriller. If we could of done it differently we would have been more organised with the location. Because of the late location change it meant that we had to think on our feet and quickly adjust to the situation.

With Wills costume we had him wear a smart suit to make him look like an assassin, this has been proved successful in other films such as Hitman, James Bond and Collateral. The assassin wearing a suit is very stereotypical to the thriller genre, so this inspired us to have Will in a suit. For Lillie we were trying to subvert the Hollywood stereotype of women being weak for this reason we didn’t want Lillie to wear white because it would show her as innocent and defenceless. The inspiration of her being in all black came from the film ‘Girl with a Dragon Tattoo’ Hacker which is about a female hacker who is independent and defends for herself. Also in this film she is normally wearing all black. The character of Lillie was strongly based on this character.

The lighting we used was the lighting already there in the house, this was quite dark and dingy, the only other light we used was the natural light coming through the window. We decided to keep it at just these lights because we thought it represented our video quite well. The dark reflects the scene of someone trying to be assassinated also it added to the mystery of the plot and created suspense and tension. I think this worked well for our thriller genre.

For a female actor we chose someone who looked quite old, so it would fit into the plot and she would look believable as a hacker. Also we wanted someone who wouldn’t look venerable, her completely black hair conforms to this idea.  For the Male assassin we chose someone who looked quite old and also someone who was physically in shape and could believably play the part of an assassin.

For sound we had the footsteps of our hacker and the assassin the footsteps of them running emphasises the chase scene. Also we had the Diegetic sound of the door closing this creates tension and drama.

My role in the production was mixed, throughout the film I took quite a major part in actually filming the scenes. Deciding on where the camera should be placed and what kind of shot it should be. Also because there was such a drastic change in the plans and locations of our film I took quite a leading role in quickly changing the ideas to suit our location. Also I had some ideas for some shots to make them a bit different.

Because of our change of location we had to come together as a team and decide what we were going to do. To start we had to change the plot on something we all would agree on, then change the shots to something that would work, and would fit the thriller genre.

Overall I was happy with the overall result of the shoot day, after the change of location I thought shoot day would look rushed and messy. But afterwards I was happy with the shots we chose and the plot. These choices have changed the idea we had into more of a thriller.