Filming

Monday was the day of the shoot for this film. Though initially I'd planned to film in a room at college, on the day it was decided it'd be better, and a little easier, to use my room as the environment. After all the 'test subject' is meant to be staying in the facility, so it made sense to have a slightly less clinical environment and include a bed.

Tom Bone kindly helped me with the more technical side of the shoot, as it isn't something I know that much about, the equipment we used was the following:

1 5d Mark 3

1 Tripod

1 Zoom H4n Sound Recorder

This allowed us to have a pretty small and quick set up, which meant we had room to manoeuvre and a simplicity in the performance and footage (as the concept is the test subject is just sitting talking to a camera).

When writing the script I took layout ideas from http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/ which hopefully made it clear which parts were dialogue and which were direction. I noted down the 'effects shots' for my own reference, whilst my actor highlighted the key elements of her speeches in order to give the general gist of the story in her performance.

On set it seemed easier to improvise the content and not follow the script word for word. I think this added to the performance and allowed a more naturalistic performance, as she's meant to be speaking without filter to the camera so would generally have 'ums and ahhs' in her sentences. We made sure key  story points were put across and shot multiple takes in order to get the most effective performance. Other elements that had to be taken into account were things such as lighting and environment. As each scene is meant to occur on different days we had to adjust the 'set' and alter the lighting slightly to give the effect of a change in time. This was also enhanced by a change in costume/hairstyle and marking off the days on the calendar on the wall. I enjoyed this shoot as as it was quite small it allowed us to discuss ideas and change things for the better whilst still making relatively quick time.

Two of my shots, or 'scenes' are going to be effect shots. I made sure my actor was aware of these and directed her accordingly, mainly instructing her not to move too much at certain moment as that would make tracking difficult. For one of these shots I decided to use tracking points which I stuck to her arm (though I forgot they were already stickers...) the contrast between black and white should hopefully help the tracking in After Effects. I also applied some red face paint to her arm which will hopefully help blend with any effects I add.