the filming process day 6

Date: Wednesday 17th January 2018

Time: 11:45-12:15, 15:25-16:30
Moments filmed: Science (Blood test), Science (File), Chase (part 1), Chase (part 2)
Personnel needed: Matthew Herriott (Camera/director/Christopher), Evie Brookes-Payne (Producer/Mya Brown), Kim Wright (DR Goodwin)
Props: Mya's file, test tubes (in rack), summer fruits squash (for use as blood)
Equipment: Camera, Tripod



Today's filming session needed a lot of work in order to make sure that everything was done right, especially given the fact that we had a wide variety of different shots to film.

We started by filming the first of the two chase shots (which could be done without DR Goodwin) as we felt that this would be the simplest to start with. All we needed here was a relatively long, empty and quiet corridor which my character (Christopher) could walk/run down. We imagined that this should be relatively simple, but it turned out this was not to be the case. Part of the problem came in working out which corridor to choose (as this was simple enough to film within school hours, though would've been better to wait until after school hours). We were eventually able to settle upon a corridor, but before taking each shot we needed to make sure that there would be nobody in the frame who would get in our way. The other consideration was that we wanted Evie's character (Mya) to call out to my character (Christopher) to hurry up, whilst at the same time being outside of the frame - which, as it turned out, is not easy when you are not in front of the camera and thus in front of the microphone. Thankfully, we were able to get this shot filmed as be done in a way that made Evie audible.

The next bits to film were to be the science shots. For the first of these (the blood test shots) we were very keen to get as much shot as possible so that we had lots of options when it came to adding this bit into the trailer. For this, I had Mrs Wrights character (DR Goodwin) go along each test tube in turn (each already half filled with water) and inject a full pipette's worth of squash (makeshift blood) into each tube. The whole shot lasted about 2 minutes, of which in the end I would only use about 2 seconds, but it was still very much worth it to get that effect. After we had finished shooting that initial shot, we had the idea of getting even further zoomed in so that you could see each drop of 'blood' (juice) enter one of the test tubes up close. For this we needed to reset half of the board, but the effect created was spectacular. For the file shot (in which DR Goodwin would be seen carrying Mya's file that we see her initially discover earlier in the Trailer) we deliberately chose this science lab because it was directly next to the filing cabinet that we had used to store the file before, thus allowing consistency. This shot allowed us to connect the file to the science more fully so that the audience can see what exactly is going on there. We only needed one take of this shot though due to its simplicity.

The final moment that we were going to film was of the final chase scene that we were going to use to end the trailer. For this scene we needed another stretch of corridor, different to the previous one used so that we could create the effect that Mya and Christopher have been 'running' for quite some time. Of course, in this shot, we would also have DR Goodwin appear right at the very end so as to create the idea that Mya and Christopher have been found out and chased down by her. When it came to finding another stretch of corridor we thought of one that was so perfect for the role we almost couldn't believe it, because there was one we could use that ended with a staircase that we could put DR Goodwin at the top of to establish superiority/inferiority. However, this was not the easiest shot in the world to film because we needed all three of us to be acting in sync with each other (and for this, as with a few other shots we've needed to film) there was nobody directly on the camera to stop start - though this mainly just means that we need to cut off the start/end of the shot so as to eliminate the extra footage.