Evaluation of our shoot

We began our filming just after school on a Friday afternoon; we felt this was the best time because it was convenient because we were all already together and had all afternoon to film. Also, it meant that it would soon get darker which was perfect for creating the atmosphere for a thriller. We filmed in Hannah’s house because it is close by our sixth form and we needed a house to film in.

Our first establishing shot was perhaps the trickiest to shoot because of the constant passing cars which obstructed the camera’s view of the actor. We also felt the cars made the scene seem busy instead of the deserted surroundings we wanted. Whilst filming this shot we recorded the diegetic sound of the phone call to later edit onto the sound track which would create a better sound than if we were to film from far away.

We then moved inside the house to film the rest of our footage. Filming inside the house went quite smoothly other than the first shot of in the hallway. The camera had not fully adjusted to the inside lighting yet which meant the shot was tinted red and you couldn’t read the important writing on the key hooks very well which read ‘Remember tomorrow is the first day of the rest of your life’. This was needed to foreshadow that she dies that day. However, we only noticed this when we were ready to start editing on the computer.

Overall, we think the shoot went well; we got all of our filming done in one day which prevented any continuity errors and we managed to film all of the footage we needed. We think that filming went quite smoothly as we worked well as a team with our actors which meant that they weren’t afraid to give us feedback or constructive criticism.

Although we were very pleased with the footage, we feel like the ending could have been even more effective if we had created more tension in the previous shots. Also, our idea was to have the intruder’s phone go off in the same room as the girl and when we notice it’s not her phone ringing, we realise there must be someone else in the room. However, this did not work as well as we thought it would as it didn’t come across clearly enough to viewers.