WS - School Scene Review

Having already filmed footage for two out of our three main locations, we decided that this week we would film some sample footage for the scenes that are going to take place in school. We did also have in mind though, that if these scenes were successful, we could use them for our main and final production, making this the most serious sample footage we had filmed so far.

The two locations that we had filmed at so far were the protagonist's house and around town in Ilkley. Our third main location is in school, where the protagonist is alone and without friends, and also suffers bullying from some more popular people. This idea came about when we watched the opening to 'Trick Or Treat', which is also set in a school. We also took a couple of more specific ideas from this opening, for example the protagonist waving to someone who they believe to be waving at them, only to find there is someone stood behind them who is the intended target of the first wave.

One of the main issues we had in the lead up to filming was finding an empty locker in a suitable area, which you could access from both sides, such as on a corridor. The location we finally chose here has access from either end and we were also able to find an empty locker, which is pivotal to this scene for us. A further problem here was casting, as we were thinking about this been part of the final product. Obviously Rob would continue to play the protagonist's role but we needed two others to play the people making him feel isolated in this scene. In the end, Sam and I took on the roles as the scene was only short we felt it would work well.

 

On the day of filming our attitude was to make it as good as possible, as this would enable us to potentially use the footage for our final product. Despite this it was still a bit of an experiment and we tried to capture some shot variation to make sure we had enough footage to make it into a good scene, as well as providing some interesting shots to use. One problem that we encountered during filming was how thin the corridor we were using was. This would normally make shot variation very difficult to achieve, though we think we have managed it through using different angles and interesting framing, for example shooting through an air gap on the locker. 

However the main problem we found was after we had finished the filming phase and had begun to edit the footage. There is a part following the protagonist being pushed into the locker where he is stood and then suddenly on the floor. We had not filmed any footage of him falling over and felt that it didn't look right on screen. Although music videos do not have to use continuity editing and are actually known for not doing so, we did not intend to break the rules of editing here and decided to film some additional footage the following day.

Filming the next day was relatively simple as we only had a small amount to film. We needed footage of the protagonist falling to the ground and also standing back up again. This didn't take us too long, but made the footage look far better when edited in.

Our third sample footage was as successful as we could have hoped for here, successful enough we are considering using it for our final piece. Despite the slight hiccup, we now think that the footage is good and we will be hoping to get feedback on it soon. Depending on the feedback and whether people consider it good enough, or if it should be improved will decide whether we use it as part of our final work or not.