Filming - The Interview

Hi everyone,

So I have just been filming the footage for my short video 'The Interview'. I was given a script and brief for guidance, which told me that in this project I would be focusing on dialogue and using the camera to explore conversation. With this I was able to understand what it was I was aiming to achieve and plan ahead of filming. This gave me the opportunity to edit my work and decide what I was going to do before shooting and change any necessary scenes to get the most out of this assignment. After planning where, when and how I was going to film, I began to create my story board. This gave me an effective overall plan for filming and made shooting much easier and controlled. I added lots of detail including time frames, edits, camera shots and dialogue (shown on my previous blog post).

 

When I was filming there were several problems I encountered. When I found a problem I did my best to try and resolve it, making my final footage much more effective and believable. Some of these problems were:

• Blurred footage - It was difficult to ensure the footage I was shooting was clear and not blurred due to me trying to direct what was going on. I tried to use the best footage I had and I believe I will still be able to make an overall effective piece. Next time I will ensure that I shoot enough footage that is good quality.

• Quiet Speech - Some of the dialogue in certain scenes was quiet. To overcome this I decided to encourage the actresses as much as possible and planned to help during editing by altering the volume.

• Uncontrolled movements - I found filming footage that involved camera movement much more difficult than still frames, especially on tracking shots. This was due to the handheld movement involved in a tracking shot. I found that the camera was difficult to hold steady when walking (something I also found when shooting my experimentation of movement video). In the future I will attempt to resolve this by using something similar to a dolly, such as a wheeled trolley.

• Lighting - As I filmed the surroundings gradually became darker which was noticeable between frames. This was because of the time of day so to resolve this I am going to alter the brightness and contrast when editing.

• Low angled shots - When filming I found that trying to shoot a low angled shot was difficult due to my tripod only going to a certain lowest point. To resolve this I used the ground as a platform to control the steadiness of the footage and achieved an effective low shot.

• Point of view shots - When filming point of view shots I found it difficult to create a steady flowing movement, to maintain the calm theme because of the uneven ground. To resolve this I chose the flattest locations to shoot, so as to get the most effective footage.

Overall, I think I benefited from this filming experience  as I was able to use a script to form the basis of the storyline, and experiment with a theme to give me an idea about my final piece. It also gave me the opportunity to experiment with dialogue and the camera work involved with filming conversation, experiment with a range of shots/movement and use Mise En Scene such as make-up and costume.

 

However, there were some risk factors that I encountered when filming my video. Some of these hazards were...

 

1. Firstly I shot a sequence of track shots in which I had to move with the camera. To ensure I did this safely, I cleared the walk ways so there was nothing that I could trip up on.
2. When shooting, I ensured the camera was attached firmly onto the tripod, and the tripods legs where stable. This made it safer when shooting as the camera/tripod could not fall onto anyone and hurt them or break the camera.
3. To ensure the weather did not damage the camera or effect footage, we covered it in a waterproof sheet when transporting it. This made the camera more secure and unlikely to get damaged from the rain. We also selected locations carefully and away from any slippy surfaces caused by weather and filmed indoors. This helped us to move more fluently and not slip over and hurt ourselves, and get more effective footage.
4. When travelling to different locations we packed up the equipment into its packaging to keep it safe. This prevented anyone falling over it and made transportation much easier.

Thanks, Until next time :)