On the set of our one-shot

Yesterday we filmed our one-shot film, after rain had postponed filming by 24 hours we were pleased to be able to get it done and got lucky with the weather. The idea was to have a little girl who was drawing on the ground with chalk, we want to express her emotions through a period in her life, we depicted the break-up of her Mother and Father, starting off with a happy family, then the break-up, and finally how the little girl is feeling afterwards. The emotions went from happy to worried and then sad.

As the camera-man I first had to adjust the white-balance so that the colours were true to life and as effective as possible. As we were filming in direct sunlight it was also necessary to reduce the iris a bit to ensure clarity of the video and that it was not too bright. It was a challenge to get the camera set up in the optimum place and it took quite a while and a lot of different experiments with alternative angles and heights of the tripod until we found the right one. As we were drawing chalk on the ground and the limited time and areas we could film, we knew we effectively only had one take to get it right, however as we were taking off the audio track in post-production we were able to direct as we were filming which was vital to it being done first time! Being a one-shot film obviously meant we had to film continuously and without different angles etc. However we were allowed one pan or zoom, we decided it would be a nice effect to pan up as the girl finished the drawings and follow her as she walked away and then pan back down (in one movement) to end on the images, this worked well and was nice finish. 

In post-production we will remove the audio track and replace it with suitable music to go with the emotions, and also ambient noises to go with the emotions, such as; laughter for happiness, rowing and shouting to depict the break-up and then crying to show her sadness. The audio on the film is going to a vital element to the film as it will bring the emotions to life and hopefully create a powerful depiction. The film will also be sped up for effect, this will engage the viewer more, because otherwise it is not particularly exciting to watch someone slowly draw out pictures. If we not limited by the brief I think it would also be effective to reverse the film at the end the create the effect of her wiping it away at the end, almost to show her covering up and hiding her emotions. 

Overall I have really enjoyed this project it was a lot of fun, I am happy with outcome, and I am sure after editing it will be a really effective one-shot film. The final edit will be uploaded next week but for now here are some production photos...