Location: 57 Ramillies Crescent
Time of Day: All Day (Day and Night)
Time filming started: 12:00pm
Time filming finished: 9:30pm
Scene: 2+3
Shots: 62-72 Interior + Exterior & 43-50 Interior + shot 5
Crew Present:
Deanna Hopps - Director and Make-up Artist
Cameron Hargreaves - Cinematographer (Camera) and Set Layout
Daniel Springthorpe - Sound and Costume
Charlotte Smith - Lighting and Directing
Cast Present:
Rebecca Chapman - Alice
Alex Marks - Richard
Millie Russell - Stacey
Daniel Dabbs - Paper-boy
Summary of the Day:
The plan was to shoot as much footage as possible from scenes 1,2 and 3. Me, Deanna and Millie arrived on-location at 12:00pm, about thirty seconds after Dan had forced himself out of bed. We started setting the location, dressing the set and checking previous photos to make sure the set layout was the same as before. We were under slight pressure, as Millie's shots needed to be filmed in daylight, which was only available on weekends as it goes dark early this time of year, so after school sessions would be rather unproductive.
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| Director? |
The first shot we filmed was of Alex fiddling with Alice's cross necklace (03:31 - 03:39) because it was a simple shot and a good place to begin a long day's shooting. We were planning to stop until 9:30.
Aside from Millie's arrival at Richard's house, there was another exterior sequence of shooting we needed to do. This was an interestingly plain sequence, which featured a paper boy walking up to the house and putting a newspaper in the door and then leaving. Me and Dan took over this whilst Deanna and Charlotte were busy planning the rest of the shooting session and revamping the script for it. We got outside with our actor, and spend about half an hour shooting the sequence from a wide number of angles. We probably did around a dozen different shots. Below, you can see the sequence. NOTE: Skip to 04:58
As well as recording the paper boy's shots, me and Dan also shot Millie approaching the front door and knocking on it. We did this by shooting a few shots and then showing the directors, and then they'd say "that's not good enough!" (not literally) and we'd change the angle or the way Millie acts.
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| Dan setting up the location recording kit |
Rebecca arrived around about 1:00pm, well before we needed her for her shots. After we had filmed Millie's shots for the day, we took Alex and changed him from his scene 3 costume to his scene 2 costume. The kitchen scene was a fun part to do, combining high-tension, raised voices and quiet pauses. The shot from just outside the window watching Richard (Alex) pick up the photo is one of my favourites, and it shows the tension aspect well.
When Richard smashed the picture, we actually had two separate frames, both identical with identical pictures in them. One of them we gave to Alex to hit on the corner of the freezer (gently) and the other we took outside and hit with a hammer t get a sound effect and broken frame prop without any safety risks. We cut to Alice as the frame contacts the freezer so Alex doesn't have to smash the frame and risk cutting himself, but so we had chance to switch the props around and add the effect over Alice's reaction shot, which was very effective.
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| Original photo idea for the prop in scene 1 |
