Preliminary Task (Part 2)

Filming

The filming process was relatively quick compared to the planning and editing. We found a science room that fit our idea perfectly and we quickly got to work collecting the appropriate props that we needed. Once we had collected everything, we got our scientist actor dressed up in his lab coat and goggles.

We were using the Nikon D3100 to do all the filming and we had a 1.5 M tripod which we attached it too. This tripod was very helpful with getting us high and low shots that were kept steady.

We also used a spotlight with barn shutters to try and give some extra lighting for the scene. In hindsight we didn't need to use this as the room we were in already had very good lighting and the light was just causing unnatural shadows on the actors. The actors we chose were two people from our group; Jake and Heather. They did a good performance and made it very convenient for us.

We did multiple takes from different camera angles to try and give us a variety of options while we were editing. We did over the shoulder shots, shot reverse shots, close ups, establishing shots and moving camera shots. Not all these shots were used in the final edit as they were not all filmed accurately to keep continuity in the scene. We also had to consider the 180° rule to make sure the viewers don't get confused.

There were a few different sections of the filming. We first did a clip of Jake writing an equation on the whiteboard. We used a fixed camera position behind Jake for this so we could see him writing on the board. This was then followed by Heather entering the room and walking towards him. For this shot, we followed behind Heather with the camera being hand held, and once she was in the room we did another shot from inside the room and had her walk up to Jake. We are planning on editing this cut. We filmed an over the shoulder shot from behind Jake as Heather was talking to him. Once Jake explains what he is doing, we did a shot from behind the experiment that is set out on the desk so you can still see Heather and Jake in the back ground. We thought this would be effective in getting the audience to notice the experiment more. The plan for the end of the scene was to have Jake say 'There will be no explosions today' and then we were going to edit an explosion into the film to add a little comedic value to the scene; however I don't think any of us will be able to do this as no one has extensive knowledge on how to use Adobe After Effects.

Once we had finished all our shots, we packed up and went to go do our editing.