Test Footage

We decided to film some key scenes for our video to get a better idea of what we needed to do, how long it would take and if there was anything we need to change in our plot.  Fortunately everything ran ok and although we realized we needed to practice techniques such as a dolly zoom, as our final attempt is still very jerky, we feel confident that the rest of our filming will run well.

Filming

We began filming outside as we wanted to catch the last of the sun and hopefully get some footage during golden hour.  This shot was not originally planned but when we saw the light over the field we thought it would be a brilliant moment to test different lighting.  We really liked the glow this shot has and the natural sun flare created and decided it would not look out of place in our video.  We also liked how this light illuminated the background but creates a shadow over the character's face, isolating her from her surroundings.

We did not originally plan to film performance shots but decided that it would be worthwhile while we were there.  Our main worry was the lighting, as we only had a torch on our phone to create the light that should illuminate the performers face.  However, considering we had minimal resources we did not think the overall result was too bad but we would like to enhance it in the final video.

This shot we had to reconsider when we got to this setting. It is similar to one scene we will include in the final video where our protagonist is looking into a larger mirror, so it was useful to practice it. In the final filming we will probably go closer to the mirror so it is more central to the shot and remove any objects we don't need, like the pink razor. We will also ensure the blind is all the way down so there is no reflection in the glass.

This was a shot we were eager to practice as we needed to figure out how and where our actress would land and where she would need to drop the bottle so it lands within the frame and the pills do not scatter too far.  It took us several takes as we struggled to focus the camera in time or the bottle would fall too hard.  After a while the pills begin to stick together from being dropped too many times.  We now know what height we will need to drop the bottle from and know to subtly mark the place where it needs to land.

We needed to practice this scene to decide how we would need to instruct our actress to move about. In this footage I moved about a bit too much in too set a pattern so that the result doesn't look natural, which will need to be avoided in the real thing.  Fortunately we were able to enhance the footage and gloss over most of the acting with the addition of useful filters when we came to editing.  The prism effect was particularly significant in emphasizing the effect of the drug and a blur filter helped show the character's disembodiment.

This was the trickiest shot to film in sense of technique as we had little practice with doing dolly zooms and we had to do a smooth one over very uneven ground. The end result was still very shaky and we tried to correct it with a stabilization feature on final cut, which had little effect but did make it appear more dramatic.  Surprisingly it fit rather well with the music but we would seek to improve it in our final footage as we want it to look more professional.