Independent study 1

How to film in specific locations (e.g. the woods):

Within this independent study our opening scene is filmed within the woods. There is no other location required so I thought it would be good to do one of my independent studies on how to film in a 'boring' or specific location. Within the video there is multiple conversations on what to think about when doing this.  It helped me create a focus on what is important for filming and what is easy or simple to achieve. Something like taking multiple shots at a variety of angles of the same thing comes In handy when editing; if something doesn't work you don't need to re film, you can just use a different shot. This saves time and enforcing progress into your project. Something like a woods location is a 'mass' location, theres so much of it that it needs to be thought out what you actually want in the shot (foreground and background)

Through this video it highlighted that a space that you don't think looks good can, you just need to think about the locations. This had a huge impact on how I then wanted to try film our group project. We went into a woods location behind the school and used the darkness of the inside wood to our advantage. It had a creepy effect and ended up helping us. We were able to film the 'red body' in darkness and get the other actors reaction to this which made it even better.

Something else the video discusses is the idea of 'revealing'. What to reveal and what not to. If the location isn't what your looking for shorter shots and shots that aren't wide tend to improve this and don't give too much away. That way an idea of realism and naturalistic location is demonstrated, and your not ruining what you have. I found that close ups were more useful doing so. Not only did this highlight emotion from our actors but also kept what we wanted in the shot. 

Although the video does include the use of a camera, we did just use our iPhones for the practice shoot. Within the actual shooting of our concept idea, we will be using professional cameras and be able to use these techniques efficiently. Something like the camera movement is specific and useful, tripod or no tripod? Moving the camera and panning the actor as if the actor is being followed. All things to consider when filming. Keeping the camera steady is something we considered. But as we were portraying this man being followed we decided that hand held camera movements were more efficient. And communicated those signs of danger.