The 1st Shoot - Abigail

Our first shoot took place on Thursday the 31st of October. This was during the half term holidays, and so we came into school to film the scenes required there as this would mean that there would be no external interruptions or disturbances. The first scene we filmed was in the school hall - the assembly. We started by setting up the equipment - lights, camera, tripod, dolly and sound. While doing this, we waited for our extras and actors to arrive by the time of half 10 which we had given them. This allowed us half an hour to set up the scene, which also included decided where to place the chairs which would create the impression that there were more people present than there actually were. One crew member, however, failed to turn up to the shoot, making our job more difficult as we then had to also take on the roles of arts director. As the cast arrived, I checked their costume and makeup, ensuring it was suitable for the character they would be playing. After checking that the lights, camera, sound and dolly were working and in the right place, we filmed our first shot, the tracking shot of the students watching the teacher. We did this by repeatedly going back and forth on the dolly, as we knew we could cut the long shot we filmed down to the best track when editing. We also had Grant read out his lines for the actors and extras so they would be able to produce the appropriate facial expressions for his speech. We also asked them for specific actions, such as eye contact with each other and looking suspicious. Next we filmed Grant actually making the address, and decided to go with a low angle to connote power. We then filmed the next scene of the three main characters walking down the corridor. We set up the dolly so that we would be tracking backwards while the characters walked towards us down the corridor. We also placed all the extras behind them so that there would be no obstacles when walked. We struggled at first as the speed of the characters walking was much quicker than the speed of the dolly moving back. In the end we decided to ask the characters to walk very slowly, which fits as they are walking to class. We filmed this a couple of times to ensure that we had a good shot. We then also recorded a wild track in the corridor in which everyone was there but had to be deadly silent. We then gave our extras and actors a break while we set up the next seen in the classroom. We chose a large classroom so that all extras, actors and equipment would fit, and also one with large windows so lots of natural light could come in. We then called the actors back up and set the props around them, giving them all notes with annotations on, pens and pencils, and bags at their feet. We told each of them to act as though they don't care about what they are being taught, except for Clare who we wanted to appear very engaged in the lesson. We also wrote about English Language theorists on the white board. The first shot we filmed was a tracking long establishing shot from the back of the classroom, to show a change of scene and also a change in the atmosphere, as this was before Clare got kidnapped. We then also filmed a tracking shot from the front of the classroom to establish that our three main characters were present and to show that Grace actually wants to work. We then cut back to a shot of Grant, again at a low angle as he still has power over the class. Next, we had to film Clare dropping the a highlighter and then picking it back up with her mind. We decided the best way to do this was to film her drop it twice, and reverse on of the shots so it looks like it's coming back into her hand. We then filmed shot reverse shots between Clare and Grant, showing his reaction to what he saw and Grace's fear that someone has found out her secret. The final thing we shot was Sophie angrily throwing a chair, the context behind this being that Grace has been kidnapped, and in Zara's eyes no one cares, influencing the lines "Nobody cares! Why does nobody care?!" We wanted to show her emotions and the active aggressive personality of her character in this shot, so we thought throwing the chair was a good way to do this. We picked a room in college where the least damage was possible, which also had good chiaroscuro lighting. For safety reasons, we told all the extras to wait outside, and we filmed in the opposite direction to the chair being thrown. We filmed this twice to ensure we were happy with the outcome, however we wanted to stay safe and so kept to only filming it twice.