Production overview

So far, I have managed to complete most of my filming and sort it into a rough cut. However, there are two or three short scenes that may need to be re-filmed, one due to the audio being out of sync with the visual, and a few others due to the camerawork being not as good as it could be.
Despite this, my project is going quite well. I am only a little bit behind the original production schedule, and my intention has remained consistent and focused throughout. I will be discussing re-shooting plans with my actors once we get back to school, and I will also begin to record sound effects to add to my film.

Filming complete

I have finished filming my footage.

Over the past three weekends, I have been filming, and I feel that although at times we were disorganised, overall we did a good job. I have learned how to use a camera much more efficiently, and also how to use lighting and other equipment.

It turned out that it was too difficult to fit all of the mise-en-scene into the scenes without making the frame appear cluttered, so I decided to keep the flowers but not use the rest as the flowers were the most noticeable without being too obvious. 

The lighting was, at times, difficult to do. The spotlight effect proved especially difficult to create when there was no one in charge of lighting (both available actors being on-camera and myself being behind the camera) but I managed to overcome this by attaching the torch to the top of the camera using the camera strap by wrapping the strap around the torch and the top of the camera. Although this was a little unwieldy and not ideal, it worked well enough and gave the effect I was looking for for the short scene I needed to use it.

Sound was also a bit of a problem. It was difficult to pick up sound on the camera, and I was unable to borrow a boom mic, so some scenes are very quiet.

The only other minor problem I encountered was that on occasion when I had to adjust the tripod height I would have to stand on tiptoes because I would otherwise be unable to see what was in shot.

Despite these difficulties, filming went quite smoothly.

A few shots were changed from the storyboard intention. For example, the shot where the dead person is seen indoors was originally going to be a shot of her standing in the door. However, we thought about using the mirror that was in the room to show her reflection instead. When I set up the camera and lights to test this shot, the way the light was angled made the mirror seem illuminated while the surrounding area was in shadow, which made a very striking image.

Also, the shot of the dead person outside was originally intended to be a clear long shot. However, at the time of filming, we tried a different approach by making the shot out of focus in order to make it less clear, adding to the dreamlike/nightmarish feel of the film as a whole. The cemetery scenes are also slightly changed due to us having to use paths with less people on them, which were a bit more difficult to film on. This meant that some scenes were shorter than originally intended.

The other changes are slight changes in the location of the scene that don't really affect the film.

Now I am going to focus on recording sound effects and editing the film together.