Major Pre Production: Test Shoot - Park (End Scene)

   I have done a test shoot filming the last scene for the film. The reasoning for testing this scene is due to it being the first scene we are filming in our schedule, and also because it is quite a simple scene so it should refresh my mind with filming and getting back into the swing of it. In this scene, it has been suggested in the scene before, that Douglas has killed his daughter Abigail, so he is sat in a park looking drained, in shock and upset. He sits there, then slowly a trickle of blood comes from his nose, insinuating the idea that he may have not killed Abigail.



   Mark was being my filming subject for the day, sitting in the position Douglas will be sitting on a bench in Mote Park. The original plan was to have a DSLR camera on a tripod on track and dolly slowly going into Douglas' face, which will reveal the trickle of blood going down his face from his nose.

   Problems incurred during this shoot as the DSLR was too light in weight to keep the tripod stable on the rack and Dolly, which made the footage very jittery due to the Dolly not moving smoothly across the Track. To combat this we could add extra weight to the camera to ensure the movement being smoother on the track. Another option we tried, which is viewable in the video above is using a Fig Rig and lean slowly walk into the shot. This was not effective at all as it was more jittery that the Track and Dolly.

   Another option I tried out, which is also viewable in the video, is having the camera on a tripod with a stationary shot. I tried an extreme close up and a mid long shot to see what was best, I believe the extreme close up gives off the emotion I want to create more that the mid long shot. The reason I have framed the mid long shot like this is so that the space to Douglas' right symbolises that Abigail is dead. I am thinking of using a mixture of shots instead of just one. The extreme close up is ideally what I would like to end the film on so that the blood trickle is 100% clear.

   I believe this test shoot was successful as I learned a lot from it. It will help me shape the filming well so that the finished product is at the highest standard possible. It has pointed out problems that can either be fixed or changed. More test shoots will be done hopefully if our locations are accessible.

(Final Clip on video is taken from a black magic camera, to show what I planned for the shot to look like, It looks really good but not really suitable to set the mood of the scene).