Filming Day 14 - FINISHED!!!

Today was our final day of filming we just had to film a title shot - in the end we used the letter stickers on the map that spelled UFO, we did a close up shot no movement with contrasts from the previous establishing sequence, this make it stand out and shows the audience its importance as the title of the piece.

Today was also the final time we filmed with Ted our actor.    

Filming day 13

On Filming day 13 we had to RE do the phone shots again !!! 
When editing all the shots together we relized that despite our best efforts there were still a few continuity errors with the phone sequence so we re shot it for the LAST time.
This time we made completely sure every time matched and every text was the same.

Filming day 12

Establishing Shots

On our original story board we had planed to film our establishing shots outside but due to time restrictions and poor weather we decided to cut that sequence and move it inside instead. Now we have filmed them I am glad we did this as I feel they go with the rest of the film wheat the original ones may not have.

The shots are all of Elliott's den and they introduce the audience to his doctor who figure collection and his solar system model. After trying a few shot types we found that pans look the best as plain static shots couldn't cover as much of the room so weren't as interesting.  The only problem we came across whilst filming these shots was lighting as Elliot has not ended the room yet so the main light had to be off. To combat this we used the flash light in the iPhone. Its cold silver light gave the effect of a moonlight glow and made the metallic paintwork on the figures stand out, the light is also easily distinguishable from the main light as that is vey warm toned, so gives a much different effect.

Filming Day 11

On Day 11 we re did the light switch title shot was we were not happy with how shaky it was this time we put the whole title on one switch as apposed to two and didn't move the camera. The static close up was far easier for people to read and for us to film.
We additionally redid The shots were Elliott eats the space raiders as we realised whilst editing the  previous shots were far too long.

Filming Day 10

On our Tenth day of filming UFO we filmed another title (Cinematography by Katie Killeen and Rachel Harrison). In this sequence of shots Elliott reaches over to his laptop types cinematography and then we have a shot reverse shot. I had thought that the pan up from the keyboard to the laptop screen would be had but it was surprisingly smooth as the tripod had a lever which allowed us to pan  it seamlessly in all directions.

Filming Day 9

On Filming Day 9 we filmed two title shots one in a book on a bookmark (Caspar Wright as Milo) and the other on a shelf on a can of paint (Kate Hide as Suzie). When filming titles we have to keep in mind that eventually an audience will have to read them so they a) have to be clear and b) have to be long enough. We are planning to make each title four seconds long.

Filming day 8

On Day 9 we filmed Shot 20 - 21

20) Take Pen of shelf

21) Write comet on post it

Originally in our storyboard these shots would have been another title but we decided that we didn't need it any longer. Instead we added the shots listed above. We did this so the title in the book would link as we needed to get our character in that area as we the titles all appear along his journey though the space.  The physics book he opens will have a bookmark in it with a tile on it, the page references comets here why he writes it on the post it. 

Filming day 7

On day 7 we filmed shot 14-16

14) title: eyeline match to polaroids reading 'Produced and Edited by Katie Killeen' 

15) extreme close up of Elliott's eyes squinting to look closer

16) long shot of Elliott reaching for book

shot 15 is an extreme close up of Elliott's face it was very had to film as there was not much space between the wall and where he was sat. Fitting a tripod in that small gap was a challenge, as we holding move the chair he sat on too far back as the background would differ from other shots.

Filming day 6

On the sixth day of filming we filmed shot 7 - 9

7) tracking shot from behind Elliott following him further into the room

8) behind shot of Elliott sitting down

9) close up of biting some tape off

Shot 9 was not pleasant for our actor ted to film as he didn't like the taste of tape. We had to do quite a few takes as we wanted him to do one fluid bite, which is hard to do with industrial marking tape. Luckily he still has all his teeth.

Filming Day 5

On day 5 of filming we filmed shots 5 - 7

5) full shot of garage, Elliott opens the door and steps inside

6) title: close up of light switch showing 'Ted Russell as Elliott' 

7) tracking shot from behind Elliott following him further into the room

Shot 6 was especially had to film in the end it took us 14 takes as apposed to our normal three. Being the first title shot it had to perfect. However this was very hard as it was a tracking shot between the two light switches, as we we holding the tripod the shots were more shaky than we would have liked.

Filming Day 4

Day 4 of filming was not particularly productive as we only managed to film one shot - shot 35.
One of the final shots, it featured Elliott running out of the door and crushing a space raider crisp in the process. in order to actually get the shot me and Katie took it in turn to crouch on the floor and support the camera that was resting on the ground. This was another shot that seemed like a good idea until we actually had to film it. Because the camera was so close to the action it struggled to focus meaning that a majority of the shots were out of focus.

Filming day 3

On our Third day of Filming we filmed shots 31 to 34 which take place at the very end of the opening after Elliot receives messages from milo about a possible UFO at which point he grabs his bag and helmet and rushed out of the door. The running shots we particularly hard to film as Katie's garage is not particularly wide and this meant Ted had very little space to pivot whilst in a full run - luckily he managed to remain upright 😊
The shot featured in this picture was also had to film as it required Katie to stand on a chair and rest the camera on a book shelf, it was definitely worth it though as we were able to capture Ted's hilarious expression as he wrestles with a helmet.

Filming Day 2

On our second day of filming we had to re-do all the footage we filmed on day one (shot 25-30) because we wanted to keep the quality consistent. We found it a lot easier filming on an iPhone as we could all watch it back together dude to the bigger screen. The iPhones camera also dealt with the dim lighting of the garage better as it was less warm toned than the camera which we preferred. 

Issues with filming an iPhone...
When we decided we wanted a texting sequence in our film we did not anticipate how difficult filming an iPhone would be. Because we did multiple takes for each shot we kept having to re set the time on the iPhone as otherwise its time would have differed in each shot, causing a continuity error. This slowed us down a lot. 

Filming Day 1

On the first day of filming we met Ted our actor who was introduced to us by and our friend Catherine. We had planned to shoot the final seven shots but unfortunately did not achieve as much as we thought we would. The shots that we did manage to film were 25- 30, we also added some in that weren't originally in our storyboard. We made the decision to start with the last few shots as this is where the majority of the action is. After looking at 25 and 26, we discovered that the camera we were using did not show screens particularly well, and both of these shots revolved around reading messages from a phone screen. So The next time we film we will have to re do them on a better camera.