Filming Evaluation - 25/01/13

At this stage, I have filmed most of my trailer and all of the most complicated location scenes such as the bar and the meeting with the lawyer in the city. What remains to be filmed is Callum's character picking up the bag, him talking to a friend outside the bar (in which they discuss how much money Callum's character was paid for his job) and another dialogue scene in which he is told that there was no evidence of a break-in at his apartment.

Filming evaluation

Given the nature of some of my locations, I ran into some problems with shooting which I needed to overcome, in particular:

 - Location continuity. Callum's character is supposed to have an apartment, though the interior scenes of this were filmed inside my house, which has plenty of windows. As a result, I had to take extra care in ensuring that the house did not look too expansive and no windows revealing the exterior were seen. In one shot, I have cropped out some of the edge as an open window was in shot.
 - Difficulty of shooting in certain locations. Thankfully, the manager of the Zerodegrees bar which I filmed in allowed us to film there, though as they were not allowed to close the bar down for us or give us a certain isolated area to film in, we were unable to use lights as they would have too strong an effect on the surrounding areas of the bar and the people within it. This problem was not so drastic that it meant that I have had to omit or re-film the scene, though I have been doing plenty of colour and exposure editing in order to ensure that the shots are clean and bright enough to see. Furthermore, while filming the scene where Callum's character meets the lawyer we were actually filming in a location which we were not permitted to film in - this meant that we were rushed for time, leading to some problems with sound, and were not able to take as many shots as I would have liked. However, with regard to the latter, I was satisfied with the shots that we took while there.
 - Sound issues. At certain moments, particularly during the conversation between Callum's character and the lawyer, the sound did not come out particularly clearly. This is in part due to the fact that in some locations, we were rushed for time and did not check the levels, which has meant that I have had to re-film some dialogue scenes in certain locations or, during scenes where it is not noticeable such as moments when the characters are facing away from the camera, re-record the dialogue altogether.

Changes from the storyboard

I was surprised at the fact that so far, I have made very few changes to the storyboard, as last year there was a complete change of location, which to an extent meant that we had to change the narrative. Changes which I feel have been significant to my trailer include:

• The location of Callum's character has now changed from a house to an apartment in a large apartment block. This change seemed natural, partly because my house was not convenient to film from the exterior, and partly because it seemed more likely that a very young commuter type would live in a suburban house.
• I have added moments to the montage, as a) it felt too short to be an entire third act for the film based on what I had planned in the storyboard alone and b) it did not seem to suggest a change in gear for the film, but rather that the same atmosphere and plot points would be sustained throughout. This in particular would make the trailer look like it is advertising something which is not a full length film. The shots I have added have been more dramatic, in order to suggest that Callum's character begins to go on the offensive against the character (or characters) who may have set him up, suggested by a scene where he confronts the lawyer which turns violent and a shot of him brandishing a knife in another house, suggesting he is initiating an attack against a suspected enemy.