Filming Part 1: Penultimate Scene – ‘Train Station’

Well, I’ve just finished my first day of filming and it couldn’t have gone better. I managed to finish the final scene of my film! The weather was perfect and portrayed the pathetic fallacy I wanted to juxtapose the situation of the text. I filmed for 3 hours in the bitterly cold however this was only 1 minute 40 seconds of my film!! A rethink on the timescale of my film is needed to figure out when it will be completed.

Max my Lead man tweeted this photo with the tag ‘On set’. This will hopefully get my audience excited to see my film finished.

Shot List

I preparation for filming on the 28th at one of my locations (the train station). I have devised a plan for the shots I want to achieve for my film. As well as this I included some props I would like included as well as a description and shot length. As well as helping me for shooting my film this will also help me when I begin to edit my film.

Actress and Actor Casting for the Main Characters

After, debating between various available actors and actresses for my main part roles, I decided on two people I believe would be best suited to play them. INTRODUCING…

Holly Hosler-White as Maddie Claydon

I decided to choose Holly not just because of her amazing acting, but for the way she fitted the physical description of ‘Maddie’ perfectly. As she is taking a gap-year she is easily accessible so will be easy to arrange shooting times and voice recordings with her. As I have previously acted with Holly in a drama piece,I did not need to audition her.

Max Clements as Connor Steal

The part for Connor proved much more difficult; Connor doesn’t have a large speaking role so it depended more on physical appearance and body language. I had two actors to choose between two actors: the actor we used for our Film Noir film and Max. Between the two max suited the part better. As well as this his acting was a lot more refined and came across more natural.

Location Planning: Train Station

In preparation for my film, I decided that I needed to visit my locations to make sure they would be appropriate to use for my film. My first visit was to the train station I was going to use throughout my film. I took pictures at various angles to demonstrate the different shot types I am thinking of producing.

 

Photo No.1

For this image I took a photo of the station looking down at the tracks. This would be used as a cutaway shot at the very beginning of my film. The setting at the time was at night/twilight which created a great effect and appeal to the image. However, by beginning my film at night time wouldn’t make sense to the story line so his might be something I would have to change.

Photo No.2

To be used for a cutaway shot or for scene at the end (where Connor is walking down the yellow line). This shot uses a variety of interesting perspective point with in the image making the shot look distorted and uneasy. The shot was taking in the evening which I believe worked in my favour. I had not previously considered shooting in the evening as an option; If i were to use this shot at the end of my film the use of menacing black shadows could create an frighting and more powerful.

 

Photo No.3

Finally, the last photo I took was a completely unplanned. As I was walking through the station analysing interesting diegetic noises and miss-en-scene elements I could use, I came across the train clock; It created an eerie and tense atmosphere. It was relatively quiet however close up created a horrible ticking noise which would be great to use suspense at the end of my film. As well as this the old fashioned run-down station looked would mirror the situation occurring in the film.

Animatic of First Scene

I created an animatic of the first scene of my storyboard. By doing this I am able to visualise what it might turn out like.

Amendments to Script

While drawing my storyboard I reread my script and felt the beginning was far too downbeat to start with at the beginning of my film. I am trying to merge two genres together to create a genre-hybrid including elements from rom-com, postmodern, drama, and elements from a psychological thriller (only toward the end). The beginning start predominantly rom-com, therefore I have tried to rewrite it to be upbeat to set the scene. Therefore when Maddie begins her spiral of obsession it will come as more of a shock to the audience.

 

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