Shooting Scenes One and Two

Sadly I did not manage to complete all of the filming I would have liked. We ran out of time for a number of reasons. One of these reasons were some of the people on set. Certain actors decided that they wanted to stay despite the fact their shots had been filmed and they were no longer needed, this caused an obstruction - they distracted the actors and members of the production group and also were in shot at some points henceforth rendering some takes useless. The office next door to the classroom had a teacher in it, who at times would look out of his office to see what we were doing, and thus be in shot, directly breaking the fourth wall, and ruining the take. Also, the floor of the class room was left in a disarray, meaning that my group and I had to take valuable time to find a vacuum cleaner and clean the floor, as it posed a health and safety risk. These problems could have been avoided had I been more stern with the people on set and demanded that they leave when they were done filming. The problem with the teacher was eventually solved as we told him to close his door and he complied. Setting the scene also took longer than I anticipated (as I had previously voiced my concerns), and when working with such tight time restraints, this meant that we no longer had the time we wished to film all of the shots. Minor problems also caused fault, such as posters falling down and the blinds being difficult to close. These problems were solved quickly, but also took up valuable filming time.

These problems have taught me certain things about the filming process, things I can take with me into the re-shooting of scenes 1 and 2. The shots we could not take were all of the shots from scene 1 that transpired inside the hotel room - we only managed to acquire the outside hotel walk, and the kicking down of the door. However we did shoot all of scene 2, which can now be worked into a rough edit. I am happy with most of the shots from scene 2, however I would perhaps like to re-shoot some of the close-ups of the detectives talking, as the lighting was off, casting a shadow over detective Hudson's face. Also, the shots with the press perhaps could be re-done, as I do not feel that the acting was sufficient, being rather wooden so to speak. These problems could be resolved - as the shot are all close-ups, and would not require a full location set up, merely to have the actors present.

One of the things I have decided after the shooting of all of the scenes of my thriller opening is that I will overdub the sound for my piece. In scene 3 the sound was drowned out by the windy conditions of the alleyway whilst in scene 2 the room offered poor acoustics, leaving the dialogue hanging in the air and undefinable. This in turn detracted from it’s impact. I would also like to over-dub the ambiance to create a believable atmosphere and use folies in order to create non-diegetic and non-synchronus sounds. This will make the overall sound sharper, and allow us to bring out the more important sounds within specific scenes and shots - i.e the door slamming. Aside from the two members of the press, I felt the acting from all my actors was good and suited their roles perfectly. Adam suitably connoted his characters tired and frustrated attitudes to the killings, ignoring what Detective One had to say, and striding from the scene with his own air of disgruntlement. He also grew aggressive with the reporters believably in a manner that connoted he had darker moods, alluding to the plot-twist that he is/was in fact the killer. Jack also acted well, showing his frustration with Hudson and how composed he was with the killings. I feel that I only need to re-shoot a small number of shots, including:

- The close-ups of Hudson, with correct lighting

- The press shots, with different actors

- The wide shot in which Hudson enters and leaves the room - the school projector can be seen.

I feel these re-shoots could be done relatively quickly, as all are close-ups (I plan to change to wide shot of Hudson entering and leaving the room into a close-up.) and I have planned so that my filming was done early - with adequate time to re-shoot. The only other shot I wish to take is a close-up of Hudson to begin the scene, to establish that he is the protagonist.

I will need to re-shoot all of scene 1, as the corridor scenes I captured I do not believe are adequate. Although I managed to shoot the first two takes, I need to have the killer's walk last at least twenty-one seconds, so that the door kick will be in time with the diegetic music as Tame begins. Accuracy of this shot is vitally important when it comes to the process of over-dubbing the sound. The initial thought behind the antagonist having headphones on was to enhance his ignorance to the world and set him up to be a victim. In filming the beginning of scene one, I found he looked very much the killer, despite the codes and conventions I used, due to his dress and the confidence in his stride. Henceforth I am thinking of having the song in scene 1 playing on a radio in the hotel room. The song will still go from diegetic to non-diegetic, as it is muffled by the sound of the door.

Below is the first edit of scene 2. It includes some of the shots above which I plan to re-shoot, and is a very rough edit - much will be changed. The sound has been deleted, as it will be overdubbed, and this way I could focus more on the editing. I feel the acting, costume and props all work well, and I also feel the room has been adequately disguised to be presented as a hotel room. However I feel that the things I outlined above still need to be changed. The shot of Hudson talking to the press also need to be re-done, as a London 2012 poster is clearly visible in the background - as my piece is set in the 1980's, this take could not be used.

This is a very rough edit, and is a screen capture of the movie in Final Cut Pro X, as the original file was too large to be sent in an e-mail to my media teacher.

I plan to complete filming scenes one and two on the last Wednesday of term, a fortnight away, as this is when all of the actors required are next available.

So as the gather thoughts and opinions on what could be changed in the re-shooting and editing stage of my thriller opening, I asked a number of students from my class if they could tell me what I should improve on in my thriller opening. They all had a good understanding of the thriller genre, and media as a whole, as they were in the same class, and completing the same project as me.