Film - Shooting

We shot our film in the last week of November. On the Wednesday (24th November) we picked up our camera and tripod from school. In our Media lesson that Wednesday we have a free period as our teacher was unable to make it to the lesson. As a group we were all planned and ready to start filming so we decided to make the most of having an hour free. In the lesson we went back to Nancy's house to begin shooting. We chose to film the flashback first as it is quite simple and it would be a nice scene to just get used to the feel of the camera. Just before we were about to film we realised that the group who had been using the camera before us had not put in a tape for us to record on. Instead of wasting this time not filming we decided to use Nancy's memory card from her camera to record our footage onto.Filming as a group for the first time felt quite strange and it took us a few takes to get into the roll of things and work out who was taking what role when it came to shooting. After about 30 minutes of practising different shots and trying not to laugh we had finished the flashback scene, as a group were really pleased with the range of angles and shots that we had used. As Nancy and Inez were acting in the flashback, myself and Libby filmed and directed this scene.

On Thursday (25th November) we again went back to Nancy's to film Libby's scene. Part of Libby's scene is briefly outside and we knew we were in a bit of a rush to get it done as it was getting dark outside pretty quickly. As we had filmed the day before we were much quicker at generally getting set up to film. Libby got into character quite quickly and after a few takes we finished her indoor bit. For Libby's indoor part myself and Inez filmed and Nancy directed the scene. Next we had to do a brief bit of filming outside. As it was freezing outside we wanted to get this scene over and done with. Inez filmed the scene outside in which we needed one clear shot of Libby coming out from the door and walking down the road. This was filmed very quickly and it only took about two takes.

On Friday (26th November) we shot Lottie's scene, which the location for was the centre of Oxford. Lottie's part is relatively short and as we had to film after school when it begins to get dark we knew that this would be the most realistic time to film Lottie. Even though it was bitter and cold outside this was such a fun scene to film as we got to take the camera around the centre of town and we aslo filmed part of it in some public toilets. Throughout Lottie's scene all of my group directed and filmed. We were really pleased with the footage from this scene. We had used many different camera shots and angles which looked really good when we played them back on the camera. Later on Friday evening we shot Inez's scene. The filming for this scene was very unsuccessful as everyone was getting tired and frustrated as we were still shooting at 8pm. After filming we watched the footage back on the camera. We all agreed that the footage didn't look very good. As we didn't have enough time to re-shoot Inez's scene (the cameras had to be returned the next week for the other groups to use) we decided just to work with we had and we could possibly re-shoot Inez's scene in January when we are allowed to have to cameras again.

On Sunday (28th November which was our last day we planned to film on) we had to film three separate scenes. We decided to get up early to get my scene done first (as this scene was in a different location to the other two). Nancy wasn't able to make it for the filming of my scene, so it was just myself, Libby and Inez who went to our friends house to film. At our friends house we had to film inside, which only took around 15 minutes. After the inside part was shot we had to go outside and film on a bridge next to a main road. I had to keep running up and down with bridge in just a dress which was very cold! Inez and Libby took it in turns to film my part, and after quite a while we had some successful content which we were all very happy with. After this we had to quickly get back to Libby's house to meet Nancy and begin filming the other two scenes. We were in a bit of a rush as the main scene which needed to be filmed was outside, and we were well aware that it would start to get dark very quickly, so we needed to be as prepared as possible. When we arrived at Libby's we called Hatty who kindly offered to act for us to see if she was on her way. Once she arrived we all got into our black outfits and walked down to the Christ Church Quad to start filming. The funeral scene was filmed and directed by Nancy as she is the only one in our group not acting in it. The Christ Church scene took about 30-45 minutes to shoot. The one problem with the filming at Christ Church was the lighting. The lighting kept getting bright and then dark again which when we played back looked silly. But we new that we could edit this on the Macs at school. Finally finishing this scene we went back to Libby's house to film Hatty's scene. Before we filmed we had to print out pictures of Nancy off the computer, as these would be surrounding Hatty in the bed. This scene took quite a long time to shoot as we wanted to use a very high angled shot to start the film. It took quite a few attempts to make the movement from this angle to look smooth and controlled. We eventually finished Hatty's scene and we were all extremely with the footage that we had accumulated over the days of filming. Filming in our group was a really great experience and it was a lot of fun to all work together.