Filming: Scene 1 & 2
- 2011545
- May 31, 2022
- 3 min read
Updated: Jun 2, 2022
Scenes 1 & 2 shown below on the storyboard were shot in the Photography Room (119) at UCA Rochester. It was a good location to shoot especially as it was so accessible as a student as well as the creative freedom in the space we had, e.g. being able moving props about, experimenting with lighting etc. If I'm honest it wasn't exactly ideal, as there was noise interference because it is a shared space; but in the end it wasn't a huge issue considering in post production the original sound will be replaced with my music. You'll see what I mean as people (who shall remain nameless) can be heard talking loudly in the background. So I focused on securing all the visual aspects of the film rather than audio at this point.
Scene 1
I started filming the first few scenes of my film in Room 119 as I had looked at on my location scouting. One of the main reasons I ended up picking this room specifically to film in as it was quite an open space, which left me a lot of room to experiment with angles of shots. With the help of a few friends (specifically Rachel who came up with some helpful ideas - like using sheets from the fashion room) I eventually managed to create a small film set for the bedroom. Below is the little sketch I did as part of my storyboard that I was trying to bring to life.
It was quite hard at first - as shown on the left - to create a convincing display of a room, but through experimenting with light and moving tables as well as using makeshift props (stuffing together random bits of cloth and sheets for bedding - and the curtain as a duvet) we created some footage similar to that shown above.
For the pillow and cream covered sheets, I simply stuffed together a load of sheets inside one that looked like a pillow and loosely slung draped sheets everywhere to create that imitation. I also experimented with the lighting on my iPhone. As you can see the footage on the right is very much over-exposed and you can see the clutter of the chairs, and ladder in the background, which is obviously not very realistic. On my iPhone I discovered that you could simply tap and hold and drag down in order to lower the exposure, which was very useful for creating a darker but greater contrast with the light.
This shot here shows the kind of shot I used for the final cut, by reducing the exposure so that only the character's face is illuminated in the video. The light can also be seen in this shot as well as the shot above, but this wasn't an issue as it could pass as a bedroom light. Once all the lighting and props were sorted and arranged properly we played around and shot some experimental bits which could be used (or not) for any spare footage.
Scene 2
For Scene 2 (as depicted in the storyboard above) I filmed a series of shots similar to the one below. I filmed these with a different actor as the actress above wasn't available, but instead I decided that this scene was too short - and though I wanted there to be an emphasis on how she leaves her phone on the bedside table and walks off; I felt that too much work was being put into this little scene, to the point where it wasn't natural.
So instead of taking up more time filming a take for a shot that would probably only be about three seconds long, I decided to use this video instead below; which basically merged the scenes and helped things run more smoothly than using the two separate shots. I guess technically it could work either way, but this was more of a personal choice to keep things moving. Plus I didn't want there to be too much emphasis on it as well which wouldn't look right in my eyes.
I very much liked this shot because of the smoothness of the transition and the way the light hits her hair as she gets up. I also edited the shot above in post production, to obscure the ladder and background objects a bit more.
Comments