Production Blog (03/12/13)

Production Blog (03/12/13)

Within our media lesson today, our group decided to hold character auditions to see who would play the part most successfully within our opening sequence. We had 6 people in total who took part in the auditions for the part of Vincent (stalker) and of Sarah (innocent girl). We took a side, wide shot in order to catch the first event in the script where the characters bump into each other. The role of the girl was determined by the overall acting style portrayed and the effectiveness of the actions within the scene. The role of the stalker was picked by playing back the footage and looking at the most eerie portrayal of the character through the use of costume and body language. We decided that Lucy Parsons was best fit for the role as the girl as her costume was suitable for the production and acted appropriately within the scenes. We also decided that Matthew Clark best fit the role of the stalker as he was able to deliver a somewhat frightening performance and that his costume style was also suitable for the production. 

Once we had chosen our actors, we carried out some test shots in order to be aware of the filming process when begin our opening sequence. We are conscious of the time constraints due to the natural lighting issues; the sun sets fairly early. This allows us to plan ahead and understand the exact scenes which need to be filmed on each day, and whether we need bright natural lighting or darkness within our scenes. The test shots we had tried out included the first scene where Vincent and Sarah first meet by bumping into each other. We decided to try out perspectives from each of the main characters and see what it may look like when it comes to editing. With Vincent's perspective, the scene included a view of him looking onto the ground where his feet were walking, but suddenly he accidentally bumps into a girl. Instead of apologising and walking onwards, he stops and watches the girl leave. The perspective of Sarah is of her looking at her phone and texting, unaware that she is about to bump into someone. She quickly apologises and walks into the distance. However, she turns back and sees Vincent staring at her from a distance. Her pace then quickens and the scene ends. 

We had also tried testing out shots from scene 3, where a montage of clips are put together to create the effect of time passing and that the growing obsession that 'Vincent' is experiencing is getting out of hand. We filmed a POV shot from the view of the stalker as well as an over the shoulder shot to create a difference viewing perspective for the audience. After collecting all these experimental test shots, we will review them in a future lesson before we are going to film the main parts of the opening sequence so that we are aware of the effects we want to achieve.

(Auditions for Sarah) 

(Audition for Vincent)

- Written by Manisha Dhokia