Shooting & editing footage for the short film

Shooting

In order to shoot the scenes we used various different locations. The film begins with footage taken in Longfield by Natasha and I, down an ordinary alley leading behind some roads and houses. From then after the character goes through the alley, I used footage through the corridors and different areas of UCA as well (predominantly areas on the Lower 4th Floor) for the rest of the film.

The scenes shot in red light were shot in the same areas as the footage in ordinary light, except I borrowed Frankie's light and used a sheet of red gel over top to change the colour. It was mainly thanks to Danny and Arren who handled most of the actual footage, and I came up with the ideas for each scene. However they helped out by using their own ideas and techniques for the shooting, which I was happy to encourage; I think everyone deserves freedom to explore their ideas. An example of this is in when Natasha was running through the corridors in one of the shots, and Danny decided it would be a good shot as a Dutch angle shot as she ran off into the darkness of the corridors.

In order to shoot the film we did a lot of exploring of the lower floors and found some locations that I thought would be interesting for the film including a basement leading to the emergency exit, a glass wall for the fire exit as well as the corridors themselves. As we filmed I took many simpler experimental shoots to set an atmosphere and scene, such as filming the graffiti/patterns on the walls.

I figured that these shots, when shown before the key events; of the scene give the viewer a sense of place. In the screenshots below there are examples of the different ways I shot footage for my film. These aren't even half the total amount of shots I took, as the majority are still on the 700D cameras we used, my own phone and Natasha's. Most of the footage are clips that are a couple of seconds long and not longer than half a minute - however I didn't end up using everything I filmed - there were quite a few shots that didn't make the cut into the actual film.

Editing

While I was editing the footage needed for the film, I documented the process and key stages of the film throughout using some screenshots of the Adobe Premiere Pro file. There were many different bits of footage that I used throughout the film, so I didn't write about every single .mov file I used - just the key points in the movie.

Above are some screenshots I took to document the making of my film. The total duration of the film is 00:04:29:15. I screenshotted the entire screen with different layouts (the Assembly tab, Editing, Color, Effects, Audio, Graphics and Captions - which I didn't use as there were no subtitles as there was not much dialogue) so that I can show how I arranged the different audio channels with the single video channel. I also used some effects for the audio and video transitions; constant gain and experimental gain for changes in the audio level as well as a XR Chroma Gain for a visual transition, which I used for the bit where Natasha begins to dream.

For the vast majority of the sounds used in the film (the green bars on the audio channels) I have to give credit to the recording artists on https://freesound.org. The rest of the sound used was mainly foley sounds by tweaking the original sound recorded in each of the videos. However in some footage I was forced to delete the original sound (the blue bars in the audio channel A1) due to other noise not related to the film picked up when filming; e.g. dogs barking, people talking, footsteps etc.

Moments in the film

The moments throughout the film I captured above in order, corresponding to each screenshot I took above (please note the first few scenes are shot as two different people in two different dimensions - but are essentially one character, until Natasha trips and falls). I have also written about how we filmed these particular scenes.

1. Opening scene, where the character walks through a mysterious alleyway, and finds an alternate path leading elsewhere. In order to shoot this scene, I travelled from the Rochester campus to Longfield to film it. Longfield is a more peaceful suburb area, which I think is more suitable, perhaps even essential for a horror film. The actual footage itself was shot by Natasha and I in a quiet alleyway leading close to some houses on our iPhone 7s (similar to how Unsane was filmed). I tried to use a combination both of our different ideas to get some interesting ideas that replicate cinematography techniques for actual films; such as the over-the-shoulder/third person shots of Natasha and I walking down the alleyway which curves off to the side.

2. The character chooses to take the unknown path and walks down it apprehensively. This bit was filmed in the same alleyway in Longfield by each of us (Natasha filming me, and me filming her for our different characters in different dimensions), with the separate junction path leading away from the alley.

3. The alleyway leads into a deserted corridor inside a building, the character runs through it past the door. This next bit was filmed at UCA Rochester (as well as the rest of the footage in the film) inside the building on the fourth floor with the ominous, dark corridor when the lights were turned off. I thought that it would make quite a good shot that we shot, as a central shot focused on the door in the hallway, with light on the other side.

4. The character runs into someone walking by and collides with her. This bit of footage was filmed by me, of Natasha as the film switches focus to her. We used an extra in the film scene as Frankie was with us so I thought that it would make a better shot if someone new was involved, so that the focus switches from solely from Natasha and I to someone else. This was filmed on the Lower 4th floor in the hallway by the workshops. The most challenging part of this shooting was perhaps making it look more realistic, without injuring the actress (Natasha) involved.

5. She trips and falls into a coma, the bystander looks concerned (she does not know she has disconnected with her other half from another dimension). This scene, I found, was also rather challenging to film as there were a lot of things to think about all at once and therefore required a number of takes - making the trip look realistic and natural, the camera angle as the subject falls, as well as modifying the original sound so that it fits in with the film, but also matches the actions onscreen. It was also rather amusing to film these takes; looking through the bad takes was almost like watching 'You've Been Framed!'

6. She has an eerie vision during her coma: she sees somewhere she does not recognise or has ever been before, with graffiti on the walls. For this particular part, I used random bits of footage and put them together in order to create a sense of place in the film, such as filming stuff that may be seen on the wall; especially graffiti. I think that the sort of graffiti on the walls also has some deeper meaning in relation to the plotline of the film, as it creates a feeling of being trapped, whether that be between walls or in one's mind.

7. In her vision she sees her other half from the other dimension descending some stairs in strange looking maze, until he finds a chair to rest on. He morphs into a sedentary position, and as he does, darkness engulfs him. There is silence. The lights come back on, and she sees herself on the chair staring straight at her. She stands up and walks away. This scene was rather interesting to film; this was when we had just found the location of the basement on the 4th floor and we were exploring it, and experimenting with different ideas for footage. I thought the basement was perfect for this type of film, and there is something unnerving about our character walking up and down stairs. The basement was not much other than confined walls which I thought was really useful, as the focus was only on the characters and what they are doing, like in actual dream. As for what we actually did in this scene; it was not planned at all. I did not originally intend specifically to have a scene where my character wanders around, up and down some lonely stairs, and finds a chair to rest on. Using my imagination I strung together different bits of footage to see what sort of story I could tell; it was totally improvised. Specifically about the chair video, that was an idea of Natasha's as the chair unexplained standing in the corridor is rather unusual, and the lights did not turn on properly and flashed a lot, which I thought was excellent and could look really scary in a horror film.

8. She has a vision of her half falling away from her.

9. She sees her other half falling in towards her. 8 and 9 were both filmed together, also in the basement area which we found. Six people were involved shooting this part, Natasha and I (the characters in the film), Frankie doing the filming on landscape mode on the iPhone, Luke holding Frankie's light with the pink gel, Danny positioning the characters and movement. and Arren behind the scenes catching whoever is falling. These shots took a while as Natasha and I even had to practise a 'trust fall' with Arren; to film the scene in the dream. I think this bit was pivotal not only in the movie, but also in our experience collectively in filmmaking as it is an example of how stunts are performed in movies. On the screen, Arren was crouching behind on the left side behind a wall, catching each of us for each take, so he was hidden as he was there to ensure our safety whilst creating a realistic looking fall. Danny directed where each of us (the actors) were standing for the scene as we could get a nice shot on camera and to ensure nobody was cut outside of the frame. It was all done with multiple takes in a tight space. For 9 specifically, I simply reversed the footage used for 8 by setting the playback to -100% and then cropping it with the rest of the footage. This created an uneasy sequence of us falling and getting back up as seen in the film.

10. She wakes up abruptly, and is confused. She begins to run down some endless corridors, not knowing where she is. For the bit where Natasha wakes up, I simply reversed the footage I used when she falls into a coma, with an added sharp sound for suspense. That bit was simple, however the longer part was filming the bits was the more complicated part. Using Frankie's light with a red gel to create a haunting red light, Danny filmed Natasha running down various corridors on the 4th floor (safety measures included) while Arren held the light up to illuminate Natasha in the dark. Essentially we got quite a lot of footage from this, then I simply picked the footage I thought worked best and put it all together, using sounds for her footsteps and suspenseful music from Freesound.

11. Natasha comes to a halt, looks down at her hands and wonders what has happened to her. Danny filmed this shot and Arren managed the lighting, the same as before. However in this shot it was a still shot, Natasha simply ran in front of the camera and the light and acted out her part; she was looking at her hands and wondering what has happened. This shot was simple compared to the others and only needed two takes.

12. Natasha is at the height of her madness and she freaks out & panics. An improvised shot. Danny, Natasha and I found a secret room on the 4th floor that I hadn't noticed before. We experimented with some random shots and messed around a bit, and surprisingly there was a shot that looked like she was freaking out, which ties in with the theme of madness in the film, so I included it as the height of her suspense, with a blood-chilling scream over the top of the footage.

13. She finds a mirror, looks into it curiously, and sees the other half from the alternate dimension right in front of her. Probably one of the hardest, if not, the hardest part to film. Inspired by the well known mirror scene in La Haine, as referenced in my research, using the trick of the camera. There was not an actual mirror we used as it probably would have been harder to film that way, as the camera would be in the shot of the mirror as well, instead we used a small white frame (the same one used to create the representations of the painting). Arren used blu-tac to stick it upright on one of the dividers in the art room on the 3rd floor, so that Natasha could walk up to it and look into the 'mirror'; and supposedly see me. Arren and Danny each took turns filming different versions of Natasha's scene, panning upwards from her waist to the back of her head as she looked into the mirror, and zooms in on me. The reason it took so many takes was because the angle of the camera and my positioning almost looked like I was not in the frame, so it was pretty obvious I was just standing behind an empty frame, not creating the illusion of the mirror. It took quite a few takes to get the positioning right, but once it was done, the shot was perfect for what I was working with.