Shooting 2: The Empty Motorway and The Town Skyline Shot

Since some of our establishing shots weren't really tied to any scenes we plan to film, we had to organise minor separate shoots to gather what we planned to film. We had a scheduling problem with this shoot, evidenced in out two shooting schedules below.

THE EMPTY MOTORWAY SHOT:
We originally planned to film on the 6th of October, but in that weekend I was in hospital unexpectedly so we had to cancel the shoot. We rescheduled it to the 20th of October (on the weekend again) this is because we didn't want college to interfere with filming, and we could go home for a rest after. 

Iain stayed over at my house (because it was the closest to the A66 location) and we thought it would be okay for just us two to get this shot (just like I wasn't there for the corridor shot, Lizzie wasn't here for this shot). We woke up around 4am to get ready and we left my house at 5am to walk from my house to the A66 motorway, which took about 45 minutes. I knew where abouts it was and which bridge to film from so we didn't have any geography issues. Here's a picture of the bridge we used.

This particular shot caught our attention as we knew it had to be captured at a certain time in the day, for both lighting and traffic technicalities. When we arrived, we knew it was going to be difficult to capture what we wanted as it was still rather low light and cars would pass every 5 or so seconds. But this was not the only issue- it was our first time filming with the new tripod, and for some reason we just couldn't get the tilt to work (we should have checked how to use it before we came to film but we had to over come this) The tilt wouldn't adjust very well and I suggested that we try hand held to get the right amount of tilt from down to up. We tried many times for about half an hour, so we got some okay shots and some tragic ones due to either traffic or my hands stability. 

We even tried both sides of the bridge, and I forgot to mention the maintenance van on the road that disrupted our initial shots (so we waited until it reached the end of the road). Thankfully we achieved some usable shots, but at the time we felt it was a disaster and Iain volunteered to try using the main road near his house (because of the bridge too). 

On our way back, we ventured through a housing estate and captured some other shots looking down the road. We thought it was good because it showed all the cars still there, suggesting that there's no adults because they aren't in use. Then we went back to my house to sleep some more. 

THE TOWN SKYLINE PAN:
On that same day we organised the town skyline shot, and we planned to all do this one. We met up outside our chosen location, the Captain Cook multi-story carpark. 

First we gathered some pan shots from indoor, as we could see the towns buildings and offices. But we mainly wanted to get a long pan of the skyline, so went to the very top of the carpark and set up there. I thought the sky looked amazing with deep and heavy rain clouds which totally contrasted with the intense orange sunset sky (where clouds parted), it had a very apocalyptic sense and so we were so glad to have came at the right time. We all had a turn panning, and we got some good shots.

We were about to look at a different angle of the skyline to capture the industry and smoke, until a problem arose. One of the carpark staff approached us and asked us to leave because we weren't allowed to film on their property with a permit from the council. So we had no choice but to politely leave. We were halfway through the door and yet he continued to warn us as if we were protesting (he talked about the armed response team) but we were at least glad to get a few good shots. I suggested that we go to another carpark nearby, but when we arrived it was already closing. So we headed to McDonalds to treat ourselves and called it a day. 

When Iain went home he planned to film to the road near his way, but there was too much traffic, so instead he went into the forest nearby to see if he could get that establishing shot. Here's a video showing some of the shots:

We thought these shots were really nice but too fantasy/surreal almost, especially for our trailer, We aimed fore shots that showed negative and mass effects of the event. Although we thought it could have been nice for the equilibrium part of the film/trailer, if the teens were in the woods hanging out, maybe.

In the summer I borrowed the camera in case we filmed, but since we didn't, I went out one morning to see what establishing shots I could come up with. It was very early and I got caught in torrential rain, so it not go as planned because I was going to go to the motorway myself, but I came back, drowned. Here's a video showing some of the shots I gathered on my way. We are really considering the park shot because the weather makes it appear sad and dark. 

We had done most of our establishing shots by this point and we are relying on our other main shoots to capture the ones we don't yet have, like the beach and industry ones. So far, I think it's fair to say we were doing well, with lots of video options.