Research into a camera person’s role:

 On the shoot day there are going to be 3 main roles that Maddie, Neave and I are going to have to fill.

	Role	What that role does	Examples
Maddie	Director	The director essentially has control over the more creative aspects of the production. They position the actors and help position the cameras to make sure they can capture on film what they are thinking in their heads.	Examples of directors include Steven Spielberg, Alfred Hitchcock, and Christopher Nolan.
Neave	Editor	The film editor chooses shots from a huge amount of footage that was taken on set and combines them to create the final product and scene. It can become quite a creative role, as each editor will assemble the shots in a unique way, and so perhaps with our opening scene, the director (or possibly even all of us) will have a look at which shots we want to keep, and which order we put them in.	Examples of editors are Stephen Mirrione, Kirk Baxter and Thelma Schoonmaker.
Bashy (me)	Camera person	The camera person’s (or the camera operator’s) duty is to film all the different aspects and perspectives of a scene for the film. They would need to take into account the lighting of the scene, the layout of the scene, and what parts they will keep in focus. Again, this can become quite a creative role, and so we will all probably have a say in how we position the cameras, but we have also been told that it is better to have more than we need to work with, than less.	Examples of cameramen include Roger Deakins and Daniel Moder.

 

The reason I took on the role of the camera man was more down to Maddie’s and Neave’s specialities. Neave is more familiar with the editing software and has used it in more depth than I have, and since Maddie’s original idea is what we are basing this opening scene off of, it seems more fitting that she has the most creative role out of the three of us. I was also very excited to work with the cameras, and so I am thrilled that I got this role anyway. Here is a video of the day in the life of a cinematography, working the camera.

 

Preparation before the shoot is essential. We need to remember to bring all the props, all the costumes and everything that we will need for the shoot. For me in particular, I will need to bring the fake blood and the costume for the dying body. We will also need to remember to bring with us the storyboards that we created (as they have visual aids to help us remember how we originally pictured the scene), our shot list and our shooting schedule. To remember all of these things, I have set reminders for the day. I have set one for the day before the shoot, and one for the day of the shoot so that I am more prepared.

 

 

Everyone’s role on the shoot day is important. Maddie needs to direct the entire process, Neave will need to edit, and I will need to film. Without my role, there wouldn’t be anything to edit or show at the end, but it is also important that I remember some other fundamental parts of my role. I will need to consider lighting, the positioning of the camera, and I will need to film as much as possible so that Neave has more than enough to choose from when editing, as opposed to being limited to a certain amount. There are some challenges that I can see now that we will have to think about before the shoot day, to make sure everything runs smoothly. Firstly, since I am in one of the scenes as the dying body, we will need either Maddie or Neave to film that part. If we decide this before the shoot day, it will save a lot of stress and time on the day. I also considered in my previous blog post that the amount of fake blood that I ordered may not be sufficient, and so I am going to order some more to be 100% certain.

 

Our opening scene is a thriller. This is going to be echoed throughout our opening scene with the blood, gore and violence within it. I will have to do my part as camera man to convey the genre, and so I will try and highlight the gory parts, the violent parts and make sure that the blood is visible in the scene. I’m sure that we will all pitch in to help each other’s roles as well.

 

Our target audience in my eyes has always been people who love crime and thriller movies, mostly aged around 15 and up, with the majority being around 18-25 years old, as this opening scene is for a crime-thriller. The expectations for the opening scene of a crime thriller will have to include crime (the murderer) and some gore and violence (the FBI agent shooting and the victim). We will have to convey this the best way we can, using our props and making sure we know what we can do within our roles to meet these expectations. I will have to make sure the camera angles and shots best exhibit the gory and the violent scenes, and so I think we will use a lot of close ups on the bloody and gory sections, but also some mid and long shots to show how much blood there is, for example coming from the victim as the shot will display the whole body.

 

Buying and testing the fake blood

 I was in charge of the dying body, and therefore I needed to gather his costume and the props he would need. The only probs he needed was fake blood, and a bought some from amazon. 

It has now arrived, and since I am not back at school, I am going to test the fake blood, but I wont use a large amount, as we will still need it for our opening scene. This is the bottle as it arrived:

Now I am going to test it, using a small amount. 

I worked with as much fake blood that could fit into the bottle cap, as I didn't want to use too much, but it turns out that that amount is almost enough to cover at least the murderers hands, or a part of the face of the victim. This is how it looked when I poured this amount onto my hand. 

I then decided to see what the blood would look like if I rubbed it into the skin a bit more, and spread it around my hands, and it came out like this. 

I am super happy with how this turned out, as I used such a small amount of fake blood, and it was so effective. Despite using such a small amount and it being able to cover quite a large area, I think I am going to buy one more bottle of this fake blood just to be very sure that we have enough when filming for our opening scene as running out would not be good. 

Our shooting schedule

 

This is our shooting schedule for the 10th of May. 

Date	Time	Set/location	Description	Crew needed	Cast needed	Any notes
10th May	9:00 – 9:10	Ewhurst	Arriving	Maddie, Bahy, Neave.	Everyone	Don’t forget anything
10th May	9:15 – 9:25	Ewhurst	Matilde walking through door	Maddie, Bashy, Neave.	Matilde	Fake gun in pocket, FBI badge.
10th May	9:25 – 9:40	Ewhurst	Close up on Matilde’s face.	Maddie, Bashy, Neave.	Matilde	Facial expressions as she hears heavy breathing.
10th May	9:40 – 9:50	Ewhurst	Tracking shot of Matilde walking around.	Maddie, Bashy, Neave.	Matilde	Heels on floor.
10th May	9:50 – 10:05	Ewhurst	Long shot as detective goes over to body.	Maddie, Bashy, Neave.	Matilde, Bashy.	Blood around Bashy.
10th May	10:05 – 10:10	Ewhurst	Detective leaning down next to body.	Maddie, Bashy, Neave.	Matilde, Bashy.	Blood around body, gun in pocket.
10th May	10:10 – 10:20	Ewhurst	Close up on Bashy’s face.	Maddie, Bashy, Neave.	Bashy.
10th May	10:20 – 10:30	Ewhurst	Close up on Matilde’s face.	Maddie, Bashy, Neave.	Matilde.
10th May	10:30 – 10:40	Ewhurst	POV from detectives perspective of boy ‘dying’.	Maddie, Bashy, Neave.	Matilde, Bashy
10th May	10:40 - 11	BREAK	BREAK	BREAK	BREAK	BREAK
10th May	11 – 12	Ewhurst	Detective walking around house and finding the murderer/intruder	Maddie, Bashy, Neave.	Matilde
10th May	12 – 1:30	Ewhurst	Detective finding murderer/intruder and shoots	Maddie, Bashy, Neave.	Matilde, Adam
10th May	1:30 – 2	LUNCH	LUNCH	LUNCH	LUNCH	LUNCH
10th May	2:30 – 3:15	Ewhurst	Detective walking away and leaving the house.	Maddie, Bashy, Neave	Matilde	Fake gun