Test shoot

On Wednesday 26th January, my group and I shot a test shot of our proposed idea.

Test shoots help us to dramatically improve our final piece as they show you what works well and what you could change if you do it again. I believe our shoot went well, although as a group we agreed that we hadn't really put enough thought into all of the shots we needed, therefore we ended up doing several takes using a significant number of angles to make sure we shot everything necessary. 

We were given an hour to film our entire opening scene. We shot it on an iPhone 13 Pro Max and used only handheld shots. Due to one of the members in our group having covid we had to use a peer to fill in as an actor. Although apart from that, each of us in our group had a go at acting, filming, and directing. Due to it only being a test shoot, we replaced a prop gun with an umbrella and we used a stick as a knife.

We decided to shoot the scene with the extra in first, therefore he didn't have to hang around when he wasn't needed. All of our scenes were set in the woods, therefore there wasn't a specific order we needed to shoot in, so we decided to do it by the actor. We first shot all of Will's (the hunters') scenes, we then followed it by Bea's (the girl) scenes, and then we finally shot their scenes together, whereby she attacks and kills him. 

I took the role of the camera operator, I had to think about the composition and angle of the camera, this alone can change the scene from mediocre to incredible. We used lots of handheld shots to give the audience a more personal feel and to enhance the suspension as the shots accompanied the characters running. Moreover, we used a mix of high and low angle shots to portray power, for example, once the girl has killed the hunter we show her throwing a stick on him using a low angle shot to portray her as more powerful than him as she is looking over him.