Filming- Day 9

Today's filming started with redoing our 'starring' title, as we decided to lay it out differently. Originally we had planned to move between the light switch and the nearby plug, and have the title split between these two objects. However, it was proving difficult to get a smooth movement and then steady the camera for a long enough time to allow the titles to be seen. For this reason, we changed the title from "Starring Ted Russell as Elliott" "In UFO", to simply "Ted Russell as Elliott". This allowed us to keep the title on one object, and eliminates the risk of unsteady camera movemnts, and made it look much more professional.

We also filmed shots towards the end of the film, such as the packet of Space Raiders being dropped onto the floor, and low angle shot of Elliott's feet leaving the room.

Establishing Shots- Update

As mentioned in a previous post, we had planned to shoot our establishing shots outside a house over the Christmas holidays- as well as his we were going to add some shots of inside the garage. However, due to timing restrictions, we have decided to cut the shots from outside the house, as otherwise we would not have the time to finish the opening.

Today, myself and Rachel filmed our establishing shots of inside the garage as we didn't need Ted to be involved. The shots we have taken are mostly pans and stills of various pats of the room such as the Doctor Who figurines, and the hanging solar system. As we are unsure of what we want our establishing shots to look like, we filmed them from various different angles and will make the decision during editing. 

Filming- Day 8

Yesterday was the 8th day of filming and we focused on all the shots surrounding the 'Cinematography by Katie Killeen and Rachel Harrison' title. The surrounding shots work as a lead up the the title as is the only title which the character creates, rather than it just being placed on objects in the set. As well as the shots listed on the shooting schedule, we also added in a shot of Elliott pushing his glasses back into place after leaning over to the laptop; we decided this could be cut in between shots of touching the mouse pad and writing the title, as it they needed to be shot from slightly different positions and could not be done in one, smooth movement. 

Filming- Day 7

Today's filming focused around the fourth title in the sequence, 'Caspar Wright as Milo'. Positioning the camera to capture the title proved to be harder than we had anticipated, as it to shot involved the title on the bookmark moving into shot, and there were a few takes which saw the bookmark be moved too far and not being seen. We filmed this over the shoulder shot from various heights and over both of Ted's shoulders, and will compare the shots during our editing lesson on Wednesday.

Filming- Day 6

Today was day 6 of filming and we filmed for a 2 hours this afternoon. We had scheduled 6 shots which we aimed to complete, but had to stop after the first 4 as the writing shot took a lot longer than anticipated. Also, we shot the close up of getting the pen from various angles as we were unsure of which would look best, and it saved us from potentially having to re-shoot it on another day. 

Cinematography- Eastenders

New Year's Day always holds a special episode of Eastenders and this year was no exception. Audiences across the country watched in despair as the iconic Mitchell sisters drowned in the pool at older sister Ronnie's wedding reception.

This hour long episode was assisted by clever camera work and effects that are rarely seen in soap, making it obvious that this was to be no standard episode. A series of arc shots, slow motion effects and overlapping were employed during the scene at the wedding reception. In addition to these techniques, the lighting was very high key and there was a strong selective focus in the majority of the scenes.

These factors contradict the typical cinematography of a soap opera, which usually consist of more basic shots and straight cut, parallel editing. This makes the featured techniques all the more impressive, and was noticed online by many viewers.

Unfortunately it is too late for us to use any of these techniques in our coursework as it has been planned and filming has nearly been completed. Also, these shots would not compliment the feel of our film opening and would not make sense to the story. 

However, these are the types of shots and effects that are likely to be seen in an upbeat music video and would be useful to consider for my A2 coursework. Next year, the course requires us to produce our own music video and these techniques are very impressive and would be interesting to incorporate into my own work.