Shooting 3: The Forest and Chase Scenes

This was our first main shoot as it required almost all of the teen cast and we planned to film different scenes within the forest/beck location. We first organised it with the supporting cast to see which days everyone was available. We borrowed two bats from the PE. Department, as props for the antagonist group. I then also went to the town to buy our main baseball bat; I got a wooden one so that I could hammer nails into it, ready for this shoot- the hunt. 

Lizzie slept over at Clare's house so that she could style Selene's character before filming, while she done this she kept us updated through sending us pictures of the process, asking us whether she should darken the eye-shadow more, etc. I stayed over Iain's house because I didn't want to deal with travelling to his on the morning before the shoot, and we also modified the bat on the night before. We agreed that Iain's house was the base for the day because it was closest to the location. The other cast made their own way to Iain's and we set off around 1pm. 

We first filmed the farmer field part of the hunt, sticking to the storyboard, we ensured the long shot was in place began. This took a few takes because people were running at different speeds and then didn't look like a realistic chase. After this we moved onto the different angle of the field part and my shoe fell off once but we got what we needed quite quickly. One thing I really didn't like was the weather because it was so sunny that it looked too nice for a chase scene, so to me the mise en scene didn't correspond with the nature of the film, but my other group members really liked the high key lighting. 

We went to a footpath area with tress, like we imagined in our storyboard. We achieved some improvised shots that featured Haden and Selene parting as the henchman ran through them after the protagonist group. I managed to pull together some other improvised shots of Fiona running (which we plan to use) because it involved movement, adding to the pace and involvement. We also found that one of the planned shot (the one where I laid on the ground and filmed the trees as I rolled over) didn't look as good as planned, and wasn't very trailer worthy either. 

I think we did better through improvising some shots, like when Haden grabs the bat from a Henchmen, as it helped communicate the narrative and identity Haden as the Patriarch of the bad group. For example, in a shot we used Dan (Jake Fletcher) because he is the tallest, as this allowed me to frame the shot so that his face wasn't visible. This had the desired effect to depersonalise the henchman because he thoughtlessly obeys Haden. It meant the camera could focus on Haden as the main subject in order to exaggerate his growing identity. I must say, I was most impressed with Fiona's fall because we weren't expecting it to be so realistic and dramatic, but it was and one the first take. I gathered all the bad group for another improvised shot, the POV of Fiona as she looks up to find the group surrounding her, appearing like silhouettes arching over into the frame. This was the end of this section, people were ready to get more McDonalds (our trusty caterers), but we made sure we got one more shot locked down.

So we went to the nearby tunnel beck location for the shots of Haden's group emerging from the gutter. I took some navigating but when we found it, we had to beg the cast to walk through the beck water (it didn't take much begging, but people were not that satisfied as you can imagine). Lizzie and I composed the group, set up the tripod called action. We had to try two times because Iain almost tripped, but our second time was good enough. We then captured the mid climax part, when Haden says 'Find them' in his sinister toned voice- the rushing water kind of dominated the sound, so we decided we might have to dub him saying it again another time. I framed it so that Selene and the henchman, Alex, were lurking behind Haden, this was great because Clare's miserable expression matches her character perfectly, and it looked well-acted.  We took the opportunity to achieve another bonus shot from higher ground, peeping around a tree to look at the group as they had came out from the tunnel, we thought this might be useful to create a POV effect from the good group. Here's the beck tunnel we used.

We decided to call it a wrap after this and in reflection it was a success with no major or unsolvable issues. 

Here is a small gallery of photographs from the day: