Today I borrowed a camera from UCA, and started to film the scenes I had drawn on my storyboard. Although I had an idea to take photos instead of creating a film, I decided to go for my original idea, even though I know it will take longer and will be more difficult.
The reason I chose to do this is because I think it is going to be hard to capture the emotion I want to portray in still photographs rather than a short film.
Using film as my medium is the most suitable for the effect I want to create.
Location:
The location for my shoot was at my grandad’s house, as he was playing the protagonist in my film, I wanted the film to be shot in the comfort of his own home.
This way I could create a comfortable feeling of him moving throughout his home, and connect him with the audience in the way I want to.
Props:
The props I used when filming today was an old photo album I found in one of my grandads old rooms in his house, and post-it notes of course.
The post it notes for me are the main focus of the film, in nearly every shot you will be able to see a post it note somewhere, showing how important they are to my protagonists life. This is nearly every shot apart from the first couple scenes in the film, where my character is looking through the old photo album in his room.
This is because I want to start the film with the audience not aware of my characters condition, much like The Father.
Costume:
There is no particular costume/outfit I asked my grandad to wear when filming. I just wanted him to wear whatever he usually does, as I want the film to be as real as possible. However, there was a jumper/cardigan I saw in his room that I told him to put on in one of the opening scenes.
There wasn’t any particular reason, more just that I thought it gave him friendly old man vibes, to connect and make the audience like him even more.
Shot types:
The main shots I had captured today were long, slow wide shots, following my character throughout his house.
I didn’t want any fast moving shots, or sudden movements, as after all he is an old man with dementia, and I want the storyline to move slowly, illustrating my character and his surroundings with visual clarity.
I don’t think I have enough time to come up with a storyline as disorientating and confusing as Memento, or The Father, but the closest I can get to recreating the scenes is by repeating different shots throughout my film.
The scenes cut from one to another, but the plot connects smoothly in the following shot.
Test Shots:
There were a few shots that I thought of as we were filming. These were shots that weren’t included in my storyboard, as they were a spur of the moment ideas.
One of these shots was a scene where he reveals the first post-it note to the audience. I wanted him to take a bottle of water out of the fridge, and then when he places it down, the post it note is facing towards the camera, and reveals what is written on it.
To do this I didn’t know whether the camera angle would capture what I wanted, in the way I wanted it to, so I did a practise shot before asking my grandad to do it.
Test Shot #1 - Me running through the actions I wanted my grandad to eventually do.
The scene turned out well, apart from messing up which hand I needed the bottle in, I think it turned out well, so I asked my grandad to act it out.
Test Shot #2 - Telling my grandad where i want him to place the bottle so the camera can capture the post-it note.
Test Shot #3 - My grandad acting the scene out, i was working the manual focus of the camera
This 3rd test shot my grandad did perfectly, but I forgot which way to turn the focus ring on the camera, as I wanted the focus to change from my protagonist, to the bottle to exaggerate the change in importance, and to draw my audiences eyeliner directly to the post-it note. Because of this I asked him to do it again, and managed to turn the focus ring the right way.
Test Shot #4 - The Best Shot
Script Development:
For this film, I hadn’t created a script, because my film doesn’t contain dialogue.
The audio I am going to use is probably slow classical music, or a slow royalty free audio I find online. This will add to the slow feel I want in my film.
Overall, i am very happy with the shot i managed to get today, i just now need to get on with the editing of the film.
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