Production Diary

First shooting lesson :) 

Today was the first day that we got to grips with the camera - which was a task in itself! We couldn't use the tripod, as we have never had to before (excuse). Also, the original location that we decided on, which was the library field proved to be a no no as people kept coming into shot of the camera and making it look very unrealistic! STRESSED wasn't the word! All we really needed was a old looking brick wall, so we moved location to the college campus in a quite area, where Laura and I filmed shots of Mair holding the gun, putting a pair of gloves on and walking suspiciously - which took a few takes as it was so funny! 

2nd Lesson 

Our second filming sesh was ran a lot smoother, we booked a room in the top floor of the LRC to film my scenes in an 'office' where we moved a few desks around and set up the lights that we borrowed from the filming department. The location was good, as it was small enough to look like an office, but big enough to fit the camera and lights in. At first, we didn't really realize how important the lighting was, but then remembered that the low key lighting is a main convention of the Film Noir. It took us about 1.5 hours to film, which was a full lesson. Overall we were happy, as I was quite confident in front of the camera so didn't take much time to shoot! Happy days :D 

3rd Lesson 

Once again, the scenes we shot were in the LRC, so we were comfortable about setting the lighting and equipment up. I enjoyed it as I wasn't acting today, I got to boss Mair and Laura around with the camera ahaa! It did take a while to get all the filming equipment up the stairs though, we had a few tripods, lights and extension leads in a massive red bag - which had t make its way up 3, YES 3... FLIGHTS OF STAIRS!! The shots we managed to get were good, but we felt that we needed more of a variety of shots like over the shoulder when we next film. 

4th Lesson 

We edited the film footage we already had, in the editing suite. Quickly, we discovered that what we had was too short to make an opening sequence out of, so Louise suggested we take the camera and think of a few more shots to bulk up the content. We decided to go back up to the room in the LRC and add a bit more cut in scenes of me, fixing my hair and putting make up and perfume on.. nothing too strenuous! (ahh life is hard being a Femme Fatale) ;) 

5th Lesson 

Today was a bit embarrassing to be honest! I had to do a voiceover to go onto the beginning of the sequence, to establish the story more and help the audience. I had some pretty cringy things to say, like 'he was the best lover I ever had'... oh dear. I play 'Debra Manwell', and had to perfect my American accent which provided some entertainment! To do it we borrowed the fluffy microphone from the media studio to make my voice sound really clear.