Shooting day

The date our group was given to shoot our opening title sequence was Friday 28^th January. We gathered all the equipment needed and set off to our location in good time.

Our Location

We were shooting at Courtney’s (a girl in our class) house which took about half an hour to get to by mini bus. As we arrived at the location, we didn’t take long to adjust to the surroundings – we soon learnt how to turn on and off the swimming pool lights and the fan in the room, which we had to keep the same throughout the shoot to keep up the continuity. We set up the light behind a glass door, with light shining in on the pool, highlighting Bethany (our main actress) as she swam up and down the pool. The whole of our shoot was shot in one location which meant we could spend time getting the shots perfect.

The first shots we decided to get (out of the water) were wide shots of Bethany swimming up and down the length of the pool. Before this, we used the camcorder in the underwater case to film some underwater shots of Bethany. For example, for one shot the camera is underwater filming as Bethany dives over the top of it. We also got some shots of Bethany as she reached the end of the pool, doing a tumble turn in slow motion. Before we took a lunch break, we set up the tracks for the spider dolly to move along, giving the effect of a sweeping shot.

After lunch, we put the tracks into action, moving the camera along with Adam’s feet as he paced up the side of the swimming pool. 

 Bella and me filming the tracking shot

The idea of this is to make the audience believe that the stalker has entered the building and is, in some way, going to harm the girl. Just as the camera stops moving, Bethany and Adam reach the end of the pool at the same time (Bethany swimming and Adam walking). Bethany looks up, scared, exclaiming ‘You scared me!’. This is the first dialogue included in the story and adds an element of shock. When we had got all of the shots we were happy with (focusing on Bethany) we moved on to Ted (the stalker). The idea is that Ted is outside the window just watching Bethany swim up and down. The windows in the pool room got more and more condensed as the day went on, so when we filmed Ted looking in from the inside, it gave a scary effect as none of his features were clearly visible through the glass. The next shots we got of Ted were close ups of his hand slamming against the glass, and later sliding his hand against the glass. As all of this is going on, Bethany is still swimming up and down the length of the pool (training).

The final shots we got at the end of the days shooting were taken from above of Ted peering through the window. 

 Me filming Ted from above on the balcony

In order to get these shots, we had to stand on a balcony and move the camera along as he walked, finishing with a focus pull. We also decided to shoot some POV shots of the stalker walking down the outside stairs. In order to do this we had to lean the camera on a member of our team’s shoulder and get them to carefully walk down the stairs – giving a shaky impression.

CAST

Name: Bethany Quinn

Age: 16

Role: swimmer

We chose to cast Bethany as our swimmer as she has a past in swimming and therefore has a swimmer's physique. She also studies theatre studies as one of her AS levels, and so has experience with acting. We have asked for her consent and she is happy for us to film her in a swimming costume.

Name: Adam Grant 

Age: Early thirties

Role: plays the mysterious man who enters the swimming pool

We originally chose to cast Adam as this character as the mysterious man is later revealed to be the father, however we decided that this reveal was not necessary in the opening sequence. Adam was chosen as he could play a young father (as he is a father himself), has previous experience acting in media videos and is willing to be a part of our video. As it turns out, through our editing process and the changes we made, it was only essential to see the feet of this 'mysterious man'.