In preparation for our shoot day, Harry and I went to the town of Cranleigh, which is close to our school, to look for some good shoot locations for the shots which involved Ethan, the victim, walking home from school. Whilst there, we found some great spots to shoot, involving some unexpectedly urban looking locations, including a wall which had graffiti on it which will work well.
We begun the day meeting with our cast. Since we were pretty much ready to shoot and ahead of schedule, we decided to rehearse the fight scene in the alley at our school which we had decided would be the best location for the fight scene. We did this a few times and used our phone cameras just to check what the shots would look like. After we felt we were ready to go, we got on the bus to Cranleigh with Jake to shoot the walking home scenes, all that we needed in preparation for these shots was the camera and tripod.Once we had the camera set up, we began to shoot Jake's walking scenes around Cranleigh in the urban areas that we had found, and I think that we got these to look pretty convincing, in terms of looking like he was walking in city area, and so I think that we managed to create the look of our concept pretty well, and I am pleased with the outcome.
We evenly split the filming between myself and Harry. We both came up with different ideas for shots as we shot the walking scenes, for example Harry came up with some great handheld filming, and also created a lot of great shots, I also came up with the idea of shooting the reflection in the puddle of Jake walking. For the fight scene, I focused on sound as Harry came up with the fantastic concept of filming hand held and up close, so he filmed the entirety of the fight scene whilst I managed the sound as there was some really quiet dialogue in this scene which we needed to use a special microphone for. Whilst one of us acted as camera man, the other would take the role of director. I am happy with the way we divided the different roles and responsibilities. Personally, I think that what I did well was coming up with a few different ideas for shots including the puddle reflection shot. Harry was definitely the better cameraman as he was great at doing different techniques etc. whereas I feel I managed to contribute some good ideas, as did Harry. I am quite a creative person as I do Art and Photography as well as media, and I think this helped me to find good compositions for shots as this is definitely one of my strengths.
We didn't really have many problems, as the majority of our day went to schedule. However one problem we did encounter was whether the profanity would be appropriate for our thriller. As we were shooting a bullying scene, we definitely felt it was important for the bullies to be verbally abusive, but we did spend some time deciding where the line was. In the end we did feel that it would be necessary for there to be some crude language in the thriller, just to convey the intimidation from the bullies across to the audience. So to compromise, When there was swearing, we did decided to remove some of the emphasis from the swear words and rather make them said at a lower volume than the rest of the dialogue. Other than this we did not encounter many other problems. 
I think that the most successful part of our shoot was definitely the fight scene, as we were really lucky to have such a great cast who gave really convincing performances especially Elina, who really gave an intimidating performance which worked really well. The alley way that we used was also perfect for the shot because it gave a claustrophobic feel, which made for a perfect setting. For me this was the best scene, as it was well acted and the shots were also good, as Harry managed to get some close up hand held shots which were fantastic. For me this was both the most successful and the most enjoyable scene.One part of the shoot that probably could have gone a bit better was the scene we shot of Jake sitting in the classroom, as when you look in the background you can see a lot of foliage, which could throw the audience as it does give away that he is perhaps not in an urban setting, however we feel that this will not be much of an issue as there is not much we can do about this, and it still was a good shot, and it is not that noticeable.
I really look forward to seeing the fight scene in the edit, especially when we put the different shots together, as I am really excited to see the hand held shot parts which were close up that Harry shot. I am really happy with the way he shot these. Those are definitely the shots I look forward to most in the editing process, as I have a feeling it is going to look great.
Overall, myself and Harry worked really well as a team. We had no arguments and agreed on most things as we had a similar vision for the project. We also weren't afraid to contribute ideas to one another and we communicated well. We have worked really hard to make this thriller great and I think that we have done a great job. I am really glad that I was paired with Harry for the project as he had lots of good guidance with regards to the acting for the actors as he is experienced in that area, and he also did a great job with the handheld filming.
One thing that I will take away from this for the
next time I have a shoot, is maybe to focus a bit more on time management, as whilst we managed to get everything on time and according to schedule, the classroom scenes which we shot at the end took longer than expected and it would have been better if we got these done quicker. However, It was a great shoot and I look forward to the editing process!
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