Filming: day one

When we travelled to the location for our day of filming, it was important that we brought with us everything that was needed. We were assigned roles so that we did not forget anything and so we would be more organised. We all travelled by train to the location together.

Our roles were assigned during the planning of the filming. I had the role of cinematographer along with another teammate in my group. The other pupil took the role of director. Through this we were able to make sure that we did not miss out on anything and that we covered all necessary shot types in the filming of our opening sequence.

We also brought along two cameras in case one went out of charge and would not work at the time. This helped us to be prepared for any problems with the cameras and help to make us feel more confident about our filming. The use of two cameras also meant that if one cinematographer wanted to watch the shot they had filmed back, the other could use their camera to film another shot which therefore would help filming to be completed faster and would make our day more productive.

A crucial part of our planning for filming was making sure that the actress had her costume with her on the day and that she would definitely be available to film on our chosen day. We talked her through our plans for the filming day a few days previous to beginning filming. This ensured that she knew what she was doing before she got there which meant that we would spend less time preparing for filming at the location and we would therefore be able to use our time wisely. As she was sure of what she was doing, the preparation on location did not take very long. We went through a list of shot types that we would need and confirmed how we would want her to act. We walked around to a number of different spots and asked her to rehearse each shot before the take. Once this was done, we were ready to begin our filming.

We set up our cameras and took all the necessary shots. Some shots were taken more than one time to ensure that at least one would be useful. We found the shot of the protagonist falling down the hardest to film as we had to instruct her on how we were expecting her to fall so as to make sure it wasn't over-exaggerated or under-exaggerted. We also brought another friend along to help us in our filming. After filming we asked his opinion on each shot after it was taken so we would be able to get some constructive criticism. This was useful as it helped us to recognise our strengths and weaknesses during the filming. It also encouraged us to film some of the shots twice to make sure we got at least one good take. It also helped us to become more motivated to perfect each shot and we were able to keep focused  on our filming.