AS G3: Location Reccie - Wilderness Woods

1. Where and when did we go?

• We went to the Wilderness Woods at Hadlow Down on the 5th of December, 2013, for a conventional location for shooting a horror film.

2. What was the purpose?

• The purpose of the trip was to practice our location reccie skills, as well as assessing the risks to the crew's health and the potential hazards involved in filming in the environment. Additionally, we were given the task of shooting a short preliminary task where there the characters are followed by an unknown entity watching the protagonist. What the rest of the story was to involve was up to us, as long as we kept the primary purpose in our minds.

3. What did we do?

• Firstly, we discussed what type of genre would be ideal for shooting in the woods. We settled on the idea of a hunter being the hunted, a monster-horror, but where the monster is not seen, only heard - an effect that we will add later on in editing.
• Before we began filming, we spent half an hour on walking through the woods, scanning the area for potential locations where we could film. A few kilometres from the main camp, we found an ideal location that fitted our storyline, and decided to shoot one of the scenes there.
• Following this, we wrote down the materials and equipment that we would be using and needed for shooting. As the protagonist of the story was to be running in most of the shots, we wanted to have as many fluid shots as possible. This meant that we wanted to use as many dynamic methods of shooting as possible, to catch the sensation of being in a rush. For this, we decided that at least one of the shots would have to be shot with a dolly. Alexander brought along a home-made fig rig, which we decided would be ideal for shooting the running shots, as well as the more stationary shots. The latter was a difficult decision, as the stationary shots could have been done with a tripod, but in the end we decided that the tripod was ideal for the establishing shots. Isaac had brought his DSLR camera, as well as a shotgun microphone from RØDE, which would help create a high quality video and sound for use in post-production editing. Finally, Alexander had a bag full of props and costume parts, which included theatre blood. This we decided to use in some of our shots, as well as on our actor.
• As we finished our equipment checklist, we began writing down which scenes we had to shoot, as well as decide which angles to use, the distance of the camera from the actor or object - i.e. long shot, medium shot or close up. However, given that time was of the essence, we decided to write down the main camera shots and add in whichever shot we needed as we went along. For a larger scale production, this is obviously not ideal, as it is important to have the storyboard in order.
• When we began shooting, we kept the shots in chronological order, as it fitted the order in which the locations we had chosen and the direction of which the protagonist was moving. We utilised, as planned, the dolly for the tracking shot in the opening, and the fig rig for the majority of the shots. The shotgun mic was used to record dialogue and the diegetic sounds, and is evident in the recordings in post-production. The theatre blood worked well for pro-filmic effect, both in the camera shots and on the actor.

4. What worked?

• Our chosen locations were ideal for filming the scenes that we needed, as the locations were far enough away for there to be a lack of pedestrians, but not so far that it was difficult to get back to the main camp.
• The equipment that we had with us worked perfectly. The home-made fig rig worked ideally for the takes with movement, Isaac's RØDE shotgun microphone made it possible for us to record a tonne of great diegetic sound, and the use of the dolly in the opening sequence worked well for the sensation of movement. Finally, the use of the theatre blood added to the conventions of the horror type that we were shooting.

5. What didn't work?

• What didn't work was perhaps the lack of storyboarding, as well as the lighting conditions giving us a very flat light. However, given the high quality equipment that we were using, we should be able to bypass the latter through colour grading.