Filming - The Second Day

The Second Day of filming was the least productive of both, as we didn't have Ian with us, due to events which led him unable to attend. Therefore, we were missing the victim of our piece (which is a problem when you're filming a murder-based thriller). Therefore, we had to work without him, and we decided collectively that on the Second Day, we would film everything that we could that didn't involve Ian. As Ian was only really used as an actor during the final, closing scene of the production, whilst lying dead within the shower, we found that we could film quite a fair bit of the action without him being there. We decided to tackle the scenes upstairs that didn't have Ian in them, and we agreed that on the Third Day, we'd finish off any bits that we needed to do.

The first major scene here was when John was coming up the stairs with a torch. This shot took a long time to get right, as the room was very dark and it was difficult to make John out amongst the dark resolution. However, the way in which the torch in the shot we decided upon flickers across the camera was an impressive (and intentional) use of the tools at our disposal. The effect gives a blur to the shot near the end, which then crossfades into a shot of the camera poised towards the mirror, reflecting John walking into the room, which was one of the three shots I mentioned earlier which I was happiest with; John isn't just filmed entering the room - the mirror reflects his entrance, giving an eerie and dramatic effect. The next shot which we did on the second day was also one of the most difficult (but rewarding) shots out of all of the ones we did. Whereas the knife rack shot on the First Day took a long time because of us wanting to be perfectionists, the following shot took an incredibly long time to get right due to it's complexity.

The main objective here was to have John walk in front of the mirror in the master bedroom, his torch shining in all directions as he looked for clues. Then, as he walked in the way of the camera, we would see a dark figure in the background, his head held low to increase tension and hide his face. As John walked back the other way, the figure disappeared as he moved in the way of the camera. Ellis was the figure, and this shot took a long time to perfect, as we had to time it just right. Quite often, Ellis would move out of the way too soon, or John would be too early in his delivery, and thus it took time to make the shots match up. In the end, we decided it was easier to take different parts of our 10+ shots and to join different bits of them together, rather than filming the entire scene perfectly (as it was really difficult to do, and we were on a time limit). The overall delivery we feel went well, and the shot(s) was one of the best within the production, in my opinion. This was the second of my three favourite shots, and I'm really happy with how it came out.

Overall, on the Second Day, we completed any filming that we did not need Ian for, so that on the final day, we could finish off filming and begin editing. The last shot we filmed this day was me and Ellis walking towards the building, so that our Final Production had some voice-work within it, as well as to add the scene at the end with the speech, to avoid the production seeming like a trailer. We are pleased with how the scene came out, and the way the curtain pulls across at the end was a pleasing finish to our piece.