Filming Evaluation - Army Bunker - Natasha McGill

Filming Evaluation 

We originally planned to film our opening on the 20th of December at 9.00am. Although due to having to change the date because we didn't have a tripod and the costume for the black supernatural figure hadn't arrive so we rescheduled it for the 10th of January. So on the 10th of January now having the black cloak and the tripod, my group and our actor arrived at mine at 10.00am and we set straight off ready to film our whole horror film opening in one day.  

What went well:
A number of things went well on the day. Having debating whether we was defiantly going to go ahead and film on this way was our big issue as it was meant to be pouring down with rain, but due to us being unable to film the first time round we went ahead and the weather was dry and didn't rain which was a major benefit. Also the location we was using was abandoned and conformed to a location of a supernatural horror movie which created a bigger effect when putting it all together as the location was a major part of the film opening. Due to our actor not exactly knowing our group before we met on the day, Zoe was able to act the part very well and felt at ease being with us a group which made it easier to feel comfortable to tell her what we wanted done and she was able to feel comfortable acting for us. Also due to us filming in the morning we ensured there was enough light so when filming in the woods it wouldn't look darker and by filming earlier it also ensured the natural light was bright enough so the tress didn't block much sunlight. This also meant that when we transferred our footage onto the computer the shots taken were light enough that we could dim them ourselves but still have good quality footage. I felt that we worked well as a team, Charlie, Mehrabi and I all taking it in turns to film different parts of the film opening and by Georgia and Zoe acting we felt it ran smoothly because we worked well together. Also the shots in the bunker turned out well. Due to the bunker being underground and in complete pitch black we had to use touches mainly from our phones to put next to the camera or shine the light on the object or setting we was filming, as seen in the photo below but we managed to make good lighting that was still able to see.

Problems encountered:
Our filming day went rather well, there wasn't many problems that we uncounted. However the main problem would be the mud. Throughout the woods and down in the bunker it was rather muddy and even though it wasn't a major issue as it didn't stop us from filming this was just a minor issue. However it meant our actor couldn't walk bare feet so she had to wear appropriate suitable shoes. Also as we only had two main locations which was the woods and bunker we had to use a variety of different shots and other parts of the woods to make it look more adventurous. Also before our filming day we did have the worry of the weather being bad but it wasn't so that wasn't an issue. However, even though the bunker was isolated in the woods it still was slightly visible from a path that runs through the whole woods so when there was people either jogging, walking or waking their dogs, sometimes they got in the shots so we had to wait for them to pass which didn't delay us that much but it still added extra time on. Finally another draw back was we was unable to find a suitable veil for our black supernatural figure so we couldn't for example do the shot at the end of our original story board because we couldn't use the close up of the face so we had to adapt to what we already had. Also having filmed in January the temperature was very cold and our actor only had short sleeve pyjamas on so we had to stop and let her warm up for a bit before continuing.


Even better if:
The main problem was the fact that we couldn't exactly follow our story board as we didn't have the veil so if we was to do it again we could try find a suitable veil for our figure, if we did find one this would have enabled us to stick to our original idea. Also due to filming in January the weather was cold so next time we will be more prepared and maybe use long sleeved instead of short sleeved but overall I was happy how well the filming day went and how progressive we was.


Some of the images below shows for example the top one shows me standing on top of the bunker looking into the distance of the black figure in the woods. There are some shots of us inside the bunker and some photos of us filming in the woods.