Reflection On Filming

Reflection on filming
How did you work together as a group?
I think that being in a group is much better than working individually because you can allocate different tasks to each other so that it could be done to the best of our ability. We all excel in different areas so we decided that Warren was in charge of directing and editing because he does a lot of camera work involved with his music and he is familiar with Editing. Robert was in charge of the mise-en-scene and designing the magazine and front cover because he is very good at using the software's like Photoshop. I was allocated the aspect of the sound and dialogue foe example whether we should use diegetic sounds most in our trailer. I was responsible for making sure we had enough people in our trailer to make it more realistic. The other students played roles such as campers and people that were walking through the woods. Even though we all had our own tasks all of three of us contributed to each other’s work as it is a team effort and we need to make sure everything is perfect. The fact that I am working with two people that I enjoy working with helps a lot because it makes it easier to work as a group and make the trailer successful.

What were you responsible for doing?
I was in charge of finding the appropriate music and dialogue that would fit in with our trailer and horror genre because it makes it realistic. This enabled me to produce a script that would be used in our trailer and after around three or four sketches we went with the best one. My other task involved me getting and organizing people to act in our trailer as it adds authenticity to the genre, I also helped put the actors in the correct positions for filming and I generated ideas as we went along for example for the last shot we were going to have warren just running to the car I thought it would be best if he struggled with the keys and the camera got closer to him. Here are a few lines from the script.
Boss: Yes Luxemburg, there is an activity happening there for 3 days next week, I want you to get ready your flight leaves in two days.
Warren: Alright then sir, come on you two it will be fun

What locations did you choose and why?
The locations that we chose came from questionnaires that we conducted showing us that the woods would make the most daunting location. We therefore chose the majority of our trailer to be filmed in the woods but we needed to have a variety of locations so we used our school (work place) and the road. This definitely made the trailer more authentic as you cannot have movies that are filmed in one location because it takes away the authenticity. We filmed in about three locations near our school using as many resources available to use to make it more authentic. We went to the woods near our school for the majority of the filming but we had scenes from school and a parking space where our car scene took place.

What props did you use in your trailer?
We used a large knife as the killer’s weapon because it is a very typical murder weapons also it is very phallic. We used fake blood to create a more authentic look to the killer and victims linking to this we used gloves for the killer at times to hide his identity in the trailer because we did not give away his identity for the whole trailer but in the film you would find out who the killer was. We used photos of us for the trailer to illustrate we were the killer’s targets hence our slogan ‘Unfinished Business’ because the killer wants to seek revenge. We attempted to create a fire in the woods to give authenticity that we were at camp, this was difficult as we had to use paper because the wood was wet but we managed to create a little fire. We used a car to make it look more like we were older men from work given this assignment. This added authenticity to the film because we are supposed to be workers and driving a car and wearing suits makes us look like business men.

How did you create a realistic atmosphere?
The woods definitely played a major part in creating a realistic atmosphere because it was isolated and made it look like something would go wrong. The props and people used in our trailer were perfect as for example the blood emphasizes the horror genre. We also make the bushes and trees rustle to create the atmosphere with a little bit of ambient sound. The scene when Robert is walking alone you hear the bushes rustle and Robert looking scared as if someone is there this creates a realistic atmosphere as you hear the noises and it makes the audience believe something is going to happen.

Were there any difficulties you faced whilst filming? (People walking into your shots?)
Filming was not that bad but as the woods we used is a place for the general public to walk their dogs so we had to stop filming sometimes as they walked in to our shots. Overall it was Fun and we put a lot of our own time in to making sure the trailer will be perfect. There were other difficulties we faced such as the natural light because it was so bright and we wanted our trailer to be dark to fit in more with the horror genre but filming in dark would have resulted in the trailer not being clear.