On tuesday 8th we traveled to the wilderness woods on a location recce to test out possible shots for our film opening and to get used to using the camera and equipment to prepare ourself for our final shoot. We practiced a variety of shots using different camera techniques which we would then edit the footage. At wilderness woods we were able to gain inspiration from shooting and determine successful and unsuccessful shots we will not use later for our film opening. We were able to explore the location and determine any sound or lighting issues that came with it, by giving us a feel for the cameras and allowed us to practice shots that we were interested in using for our final piece. We also used this opportunity to look at the health and safety side of a shoot as we filled in forms stating each of the issues and problems we might face during the day.
From the recce we learnt you must attempt to gather as much footage possible in the shortest amount of time. We must also consider the rule of thirds and the 180 degree rule when shooting each footage, also make sure the composition of each piece is stylistically correct. We made our way around the woods looking for appropriate locations that might work in our opening sequence. The trick is to be as creative as possible; use what's around you and try and break the boundaries of predictable cinema and make something new and interesting.
A shot that we particularly liked was using the handy cam in a point-of-view shot whilst running and breathing heavily through the woods. This was, however, very problematic because our camera did not like the shaking and would stop recording. We found that we had to do this shot several times before we filmed one long enough. We also particularly liked the use of extreme close up, establishing the deep veins and marks on particular objects, such as leaves and bark of logs, a technique ‘the reeping cleverly used’.
One location that we particularly liked was by the stream. We were allowed to be very creative whilst filming, so we filmed various different shot sizes of the stream and tried different movements and angles. We other used props in our piece; a set of rosary beads. It looked particularly chilling when we placed the beads of the surface of the water and let it float in the stream.
This exercise generated many new ideas, particularly we wanted to further create the sense of a disjointed atmosphere by shooting some footage through a kaleidoscope, quite a unique technique which could look very effective for our piece. We worked out that when doing a montage opening with quick flashes, we need a lot of related still image material for example our obscure close-ups of nature such as logs and leaves. We photographed symbols on the trees and items that were child-related which reflected the theme that we wanted in our final piece. We will for our real film opening uses flashes more related to girls and dolls, for example a china doll close up shots, mirrors and dolls houses.
Next time, for our own locations we will carry out health and safety forms before taking the equipment out. As we want to have montage editing in our opening sequence, we will need a variation of shots and locations. We were looking at using doll style houses, shooting the exterior through a establishing long shot, a teenage bedroom where we will use the props of the doll and the doll’s house, a basement and a large empty space as a psychiatrist's room for our filming and lastly creating a horror disjointed feel by shooting through mirrors.
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