Shooting Our Horror Opening Sequence

On Wednesday 14th January, our media group set off to Send to film the opening title sequence of our horror film. I really enjoyed filming and the day taught me a lot about the importance of organisation and being able to work as a successful group.

Our brief was to construct an opening title sequence of a horror film. We chose the location due to the gothic interior and the surrounding land was eeire(due to the isolation of other houses) which I know to be appropriate from my research for a generic horror product.

My role on the day was Director, I found this a challenge as i needed to be focused, organised, make decisive and on the spot decisions and direct the group in a postive way by the listening to their suggestions. I thought I was quite a good director and our group seemed to work really well toegther however I think as director I could have improved on my time keeping as at times I felt underpressure that we were running late to complete the shots.

Our Shooting Timetable for the day

Arrive at location 9.30

10.00 Set up lighting-3-point lighting (using RedHeads and Blue Gel to get rid of the orange tungsten bulbs) and looked around location

Shoot bathroom scene 10.00-12.00

Reraranged lighting

Mores bathroom shooting

Shoot corridor scene 12.00-1.00

Lunch break 1.00-2.00

Recce outside 2.00-2.15

Assebmled track outside 2.15-2.30

Shoot outside scene 2.30-3.15

Moved lighting from inside the house to the workshop 3.15-4.00

Shoot workshop scene 4.00-5.30

Packed up equipment and drive back to Hurtwood 5.30-6.00

Overall i found the shooting day really enjoyable and taught me about the operation of the camera (Sony DV2000).
INTERIOR: In the bathroom interior shots we were able to achieve successful and appropiate framing devices. Simularly in the workshop interior we were able to achieve successful P.O.V shots of the doll maker with a hand held camera which i found really fun to shoot and looked really effective in editing. However whilst shooting in the workshop we found it a struggle keeping focused on lighting continuity as the diffused lighting was becoming dimmer within the course of two hours, which whilst editing was quite a challenge to overcome. Also at times many of our shots were out of focus such as the focus pull with the women and doll due to the lacking experience of the camera operater. If we had more time I would like to re-shoot a couple of shots to improve the texture of the mise-en-scene.