test shoot plan

planning our test shoot:

The reason we are doing our test shoot is prodominantly so that we will be able to see whether or not our idea works. We would never want to get to the main shooting and have it not work. Having a test shoot planned and done meant that we were prepared for what we needed to do (what would take time, what didn't work, what worked etc). For example preparing the rock piles and large stick shapes on the ground took time to set up, so next time on the actual day of the shoot we will go before hand in preparation so that we can use the time that we have to get on with the shooting. The planning in which we did before hand included preparing the difficulties and possible cautions of the shoot. Difficulties included the set up and whether or not the location is going to look good as well as lighting, props, sound quality etc. The planning which we also took in hand was how much time it was going to take and what bits were easy to film. Majority of the shooters successful but now that we have done the shoot we are able to identify what difficulties we are going to face next time and what we need to focus on mainly.

Due to this only being a test shoot we didn't have all of the props necessary or the items that were required to make our scene, so we had to substitute a few of the props. For example within our scene we need a dog, but that is obviously something that needs to be organized and time to get done. Within our test shoot we had our actor saying "come on boy" connoting to the audience that there is something friendly (dog) with him. Looking at props and what we used instead was tree branches and rocks that we found in our location. Obviously in the real shooting we will have a more efficient and elaborate set up that is more realistic. Overall the props we actually have are quite minimal and so it makes it easier for us in general. The roles in which I took in the production and making of this shoot was the filter and editor. I had to take the required shots on set as well as putting it together and adding the sound (non diegetic) in post production. Our scene only needs 1 official actor and we are still in the deciding to wether or not we need a bad girl (body) or just the remains of a body. To do this we will use meat or clay or in genera attempting to make or buy the organs of the remains. We used one of our group members (tom) as the main actor walking through the woods, Jemma as the dead body and Olly who was in charge of taking behind the scenes photographs. 

Overall the shoot was quite successful as it gave us a main idea of what we want it to be and what we want to achieve with the opening scene. It also gave us a time Frame of what everything is going to take and just a general idea. Although looking back at the final edited shoot, the quality wasn't amazing and we could thought out the type of shots we wanted to use due to the fact that we had a tight schedule it does look slightly rushed at moments. But these are all things that can be fixed and without this test shoot it would create further difficulties within the actual shoot. So in my opinion I think the test shoot went quite well. The shoot was able to present whether or not the idea translated well. Some of the things that went well was our character type. We were able to identify what type of male character we want walking through the woods. Someone who is nice, oblivious to what has happened. Stereotypical man walking with his dog 'the normal'.  That was quite successful in the fact that we are aware of what we want, whereas before we wouldn't of known without this test shoot. Something else that went well was the set up, it took a few tries to work out how the 'weird' objects (rock piles, mysterious tree branches etc) would look and be set up. But in the end we got the types of shapes and things we wanted to create.

The things we struggled to film was the dead body. The reason for this was because we wanted it to look dead and that is quite hard to do at times. This is why we have made the active decision to not use a real body and attempt to use the 'remains' of a body with a mass amount of fake blood. This will most likely look more realistic than a body that we ave to try make dead. I think this was one of the difficulties as the body didn't look very dead or creepy. Another difficulty that we found was the man being chased, we wanted something that looked good and like he was being chased which we didn't communicate very well in the test shoot. So to develop this we will most likely not have him running away but just him screaming and the screen going black.
The things we could develop or do better next time is the camera shots either being longer or in a different way. As we didn't capture his reaction well. I would want to include more close ups of his facial expression so that the audience are able to have a more personal view of our character.