First day of shooting (15th February 2012)...

Scenes filmed

Scene 5
Scene 9
Scene 11

Actors required
Ben Cartwright – Sheldon Rex
Lucy Cunnington – Sylvia Freeman
Myself – Reece Freeman

Locations used
Living Room
Dining Room
Bed room
Hallway

On our first day of filming we decided to shoot all of the scenes that are set in Freeman manor as we knew these would take the longest so we decided to get them done first to save time in the long run. It was our first day of filming so it took the actors a while to get familiar with their characters and how they wanted to play them as well as it took Dan and I some time to get to grips with the camera and how to make the most of each shot. We overcame this by blocking each scene (blocking refers to figuring out how the actors and camera/s will physically move through a scene) just before shooting it. This helped us as it allowed us to see where potential problems, such as unwanted objects or people in the shot, before filming it. We also allowed for several unfilmed run-throughs of each scene before shooting allowing the actors to get more comfortable with their lines.

We experimented with several different camera shots, often filming scenes up to three times from different angles, in order to be able to edit different angles together later in post-production in order to make our scenes more interesting and to avoid just having one long continuous shot.

Some examples of the different shots we achieved are given below:

Over the shoulder – We used this shot to show how Reece’s writing changes as he gets angrier and how he begins to cross out words suggesting his mind is on other things (Sylvia and Rex’s affair). We also wanted to make it seem like Rex and Sylvia where sort of looking down on him as their affair is a great secret and they therefore know something he doesn’t making him seem less important.

Over the shoulder shot

High angle/Point of view (POV) – We wanted to use a high angle shot when Reece goes to retrieve the gun from the drawer as to make the gun clearer. We also wanted to make the shot seem like Reece’s point of view to show how he is focusing in on the gun and how all he can think about at this moment was revenge.

High angle/POV shot

Close up – We wanted to have a close up shot of the gun when Sylvia is planning to shoot Rex as we wanted to emphasise the danger in the scene as well as to make Sylvia’s intentions abundantly clear as we didn’t want the film too be to hard to follow.  We also felt Sylvia should have her legs displayed in this shot as it fits with the conventions of classic femme fatales.

Close up shot

Low angle – We wanted to make Reece’s importance and anger the focal point of the scene where he bursts in on Sylvia and Rex and we did this by using a low angle shot of him. The low angle makes him seem more intimidating as well as showing how the power shifts from Sylvia to Reece at this moment in the film.

Low angle shot

With the first day of filming over we planned when and where we were going to film next. We decided we would film the scenes in Ashwell on the 19^th of February. This was important as it allowed us to make sure all the actors we needed for these scenes were available at this time so that production could run smoothly.  

Dining room location

Living room location