Shooting: The Remaining

      Just a short, semi 'behind-the-scenes' of thought, event, problems, weather and giggles of the day we filmed our opening title sequence: 

    
      Deciding on the location to shoot our short film was something that Bex and I immediately agreed on. (Off to a great start eh!?) We strongly wanted it to not be a heavily stereotypical location, despite the genre, because we wanted to build on the idea of mystery. Sadly what we did not consider was checking whether we would be able to take all of our equipment onto Clevedon Pier and use it to film there. We got there on a very windy Wednesday afternoon, paid to go in (having just eaten lunch on the de-tour we took to get there!) and went to walk through when suddenly we were told tripod's were not allowed on the Pier. Oh dear...! However, you were allowed to film, and take pictures etc, but the tripod was a no go. So, leaving it there, we then had to think how on earth we could film without it! As I was in charge of the camera and all the filming, I was desperately looking for tables, ledges, flat surfaces etc that I could use! But it sure allowed us to play with angles and perspectives! Luckily our opening shot was low down, on the floor in fact, so not too bad a start. 

Our opening shot of Amelia walking down the Pier.

      In particular for this shot, I placed the camera on a table that was ironically perfectly placed in the corner of the upper level of the Pier. Despite it being a distant shot of our protagonist and there being a fair bit in the frame, it has hidden her face, linking with her identity and the fact that the audience still does know what she looks like, or in fact what she is looking at. This perfectly build with the mystery factor. 

      This shot is of Amelia having now seen the photo, and not bending down to pick it up and have a look. The audience having already seen the picture on the previous shot of when it blows up against her feet. When she bends down to pic something up, the straight facing shot of Amelia portrays this perfectly where the audience is able to relate to the previous shot.

      Here, we inserted a panning shot from Amelia's perspective just after she has picked up the photo and is a little confused as to where it has come from. Casually she looks up and across the sea. Ideally here I wanted to show a blurred figure in the distance and for that to be our ghost at the end, but sadly it would have been too small in insignificant due to the scaling of the shot.

      This over the shoulder shot was used so that the audience can see at the same time as Amelia the photo she now holds in her hand. This shot is a carry on from the eye line match between the picture and our Protagonist. 

      This image shows a mid-shot of Amelia and the audience being able to see her reaction to the now scratched out photo as she stands back a little, one hand on the railing and her body slowly turning to the side. I guess you could class this as a reaction shot, when she suddenly turns around having sensed/heard something behind her. You can also see her surroundings as she is not placed in the center of the frame.