The day of shooting began at 8:30AM on Friday the 7th of May, inside the editing suite. Here we gathered all props and costumes and briefed the staff involved in the process about the basis of our idea and how we would like the day to run. Through this chat we decided to not use the fake tattoos we had originally planned to use on the hands of the bodyguard as it was advised that will look to fake and could take away from the real meaning of the sequence. We also decided to switch guns as we decided that the original revolver like gun looked too tacky and unrealistic, we also had a few alternatives that we saw better fit and decided to go with, these being more modern guns with clips that can be loaded.
We then made out way to the set after dressing the cast in their costumes. For Dave who was playing Jason, his costume trousers where too long and so it was concluded that he should wear his own ones that he was already wearing as they still matched the connotations attached to the costume and fit him better.
We began filming by setting the camera up in the window of the car filming the bodyguard, played by Mike. This was so that we could run through the whole scene from this angle so that the cast could get a feel for the sequence of actions that occurred in certain parts of the sequence. This first shot was also useful for the crew, especially me as the camera operator as it allowed me to find the correct white balance and exposure for inside the car as the actual camera was outside the car. This proved a challenge to match the background outside the car and what is going on inside the car to make sure the background was not over exposed. We shot three shots from this angle, a wide, mid and close-up on his hands to see him Check the phone and load the gun etc.
We then filmed the whole scene from outside the car highlighting the back door, this shot included the death scene as well as Jason (Dave) getting inside the car. For this shot we used a high angle shot to get the effect of looking over the bodyguard's shoulder as he makes his way around the car to finish Jason off. Through filming this scene, we noticed that at some places on the car our reflection could be seen in the bodywork, this was not expected in the preparations involved in pre-production. To solve this, we used a polarised lens to add a tint to the shot, this took away that reflectively on the body work and allowed us to continue with shooting. We also used a big reflective circle as can be seen in the photos above.
Due to scheduling, Mike had to teach a lesion at 10:30 meaning he was not available for about an hour after this period. As we did not want to put filming on hold as the location, we were filming in is a central party of the school and frequency has teachers and students moving through it, therefore we wanted to take advantage of the free space whilst we had it. We decided to add in a shot that was not originally planned, this was tracking shot that was wide and had an establishing feel too it. We originally tried to do this by holding the camera and walking backwards but due to the surface on the ground and lack of camera experience we were unable to get a stable shot that we were happy with. We then decided to use a car that I would sit in the back off as it drove, this gave us a much smoother shot that we were all happy with as can be seen above.
In this same period without Mike, we decided to get some shots of the car to potentially use at the beginning of the sequence as titles are rolling for example. We used many different shots of certain features on the car taking advantage of the good weather with ‘top gear’ like shots some involving depth of field techniques such as focus pulls. For of the shots of the wheels we decided to use another Porsche parked on the other side of lot as the wheels looked much cleaner and modern as it was a newer model, we decided to do this as we felt it would not interfere with the continuity of the sequence as the wheels did not feature in the filming of the action.
This was followed by arguably the most challenging aspect of the shoot, this being the mid and close shots within the car. This was particularly challenging as the car was not that big and no get certain shots, I had to squeeze into certain positions within the car and this proved a challenge. While within the car I managed to get some very nice movements with the camera as it followed the character of Jason being killed. This was my favourite part of the day as it was a challenge that I was able to adapt to and get on with the shoot, I am also very happy with the shots that we got from this angle. We also got some other shots inside the car such as some over-shoulder shots from Dave’s (Jason) perspective as well as over the Shoulder on the bodyguard to show messages on his mobile phone. For these shots I used lots of things learned in previous workshops such as rule for thirds, as I took the camera hand help it was very important, I set the shop up right, I used rule of third to correctly position the subject on screen.
We then moved into the second location being our school headmaster's office. We originally had planned to have a small sequence here showing the final boss played by James, drinking whisky and pouring a glass then going onto picking up the phone. When we got on set, we discuss how we want the scene to go, and we decided that by making it to complicated it way take away from the overall feel of the sequence as we want to portray this character as very mysterious and dangerous so in that case less is more.
We decided to use one shot of him getting a phone call and him putting the phone to his ear, then he goes on to do a nod to show he understood the phone call and puts the phone down. When shooting this shot it look me around six times to get it right as I wanted to get a close-up tracking of the phone in hand then moving up to the ear. I feel that the way this shot ended up was good and my group and I are very pleased with it as we feel it fits the ethos of the sequence as well as the conventions.
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