Test Shoot Reflections

As part of the preparation for the main shoot, we carried out a test shoot to clarify what would and what would not work when filming our opening. We used our animatic to create a shoot board:

This helped us when filming our test shoot.

We faced quite a few challenges when filming. Firstly, when the camera tracks Christopher from his bedroom to he bathroom, the camera had to be handheld and it was difficult to keep it steady. We eventually decided (after we edited the test shoot) that in the main shoot the camera will be stationary in the bathroom (on the tripod) for the mirror shot.

We weren't sure at first how to move from the shot of Christopher buttoning his shirt to when he eats cereal. We knew we wanted to pan behind an obstruction and come out into the next shot, but the obstruction we were using (a chest of drawers) didn't look the same colour as the second obstruction (the knife rack). We fixed this on the test shoot by putting an A3 black book in front of the drawers:

We weren't expecting this shot to be successful, and because it went well we know to definitely include it in the main shoot.

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Our shot on the train also turned out to be quite successful (although we had to change Brandon's last name in order for the title to fit, but this doesn't matter):

However, we won't be using it in our main shoot because when filming on the Southbank we were asked to stop because you need a permit to be able to film there. We have decided for our main shoot we will film in Crouch End, because it's local and therefore convenient but it also looks quite obviously like London. There is also an open space where we can film the conversation between the two characters.

(picture of Crouch End from Google Images)

Before being told to leave the Southbank, we did get some good iconographic shots:

We had some difficulty filming some of the journey shots.

Christopher was initially going to be walking directly towards the camera, which would be moving with him. But it was too difficult to stop the camera from shaking. We ended up keeping the camera stationary (positioned on the ground for the close-up of the shoes and on the tripod for the mid shot). They were fine like this, so we will be doing this in the main shoot.

In the last scene, the actors kept moving out of the frame:  

When editing, we realised that we had problems with continuity - for example, Eliza's hands would not be doing the same thing in each shot and sometimes they would be standing in different places:

We will make sure that for our main shoot the actors know not only what to say but also exactly where to be positioned and what to be doing with their arms, facial expressions etc. so that it will be continuous and make sense.