Test Filming

After producing a storyboard for our two minute film opening, we chose to produce a test film so that we could trial all aspects of the introduction. We filmed in a similar setting but not the one we hope to use for our final piece, the setting for our test had fewer trees and is much more accessible to people; therefore we had quite a few people in the background of shots. We couldn't use our final setting as we needed access to a swing set, but we will hopefully have an old- fashioned wooden one soon allowing us to film whether we choose. We also didn't have costumes or makeup on this test shot, so the whole miss- en- scene does not reflect our aim for the final piece.

However, this preliminary exercise allowed us to trail different shot lengths, camera angles and also gave our actress a trial run instead of launching straight into filming. From the morning filming in the park, we had a huge list of problems while filming; from the lighting to the tripod. It was useful to find these problems at this early stage rather than letter as it means we will have fewer complications when filming our actual piece.

To solve all the issues we made several changes to our storyboard and to our initial plan. We are now choosing to pan upwards before Keeley enters the forest instead of upwards and across, this will ensure that there is a smooth transition without camera shake. We are also choosing to ditch the teddybear and instead use an old- fashioned doll, we think this will fit our mise-en-scene better and create a creepier atmosphere as we found the teddybear pretty laughable when filming. Our final decision was choosing to film early morning instead of mid-day, we struggled with the lighting while test filming and we were often having to block out the sun as it was overly bright, hopefully by filming in dimmer morning light we will have a darker atmosphere rather than oddly lit shots.