Test Footage
Horse Shots - Practice One:
Video Credit: Aimee shot this video
I decided that using my horse, Teddy could be an interesting way to get a shot from a different point of view - I used a go-pro attached to a chest harness to film this video. It took me a while to get the right angle and position the camera properly but eventually I got the hang of it and manage to figure out where the camera should be. Another issue I came across with was the fact that the movement of the horse was quite unsteady meaning the camera moved in a rapid motion a lot. I decided to try a different path way which was straight meaning I didn't have to worry about turning corner - this seemed to make the video seem steady but still moving with the horses gate. I really liked the way this shot looked as it looked like someone was on the run but from what we do not know. Once I had all the footage I decided to edit it - I used Movie Maker which isn't the best editing site but worked for the experiment. I decided to turn the video black and white to create a scary looking woods and also make it seem at night - I think the black and white I used was to bright still but it made the video look older - almost could be a lost tape. I also put the video in slow-motion, I decided to do this so the viewer could see the surrounding more and even though the video is in slow-motion you can still see the horse is travelling at a fast pace. I would like to film this shot again but with different camera angel including a hat cam and possibly attaching the camera around the horses legs/chest so we would the setting from a lower point of view.
Test Footage - Take One
Video Credit:
Here is some test footage we filmed in practice for our actual trailer - we tried out some shots we thought were good and would work well within our trailer. We also got to grips with the camera and all the settings on it.
BTS editing of 1st Crew Meeting
Video Credit: Jamie edited this video
Once I began editing our crew meeting video, I noticed that the audio was very loud and had some echo/background noise. I wanted to fix this so I used the audio editing program Audacity to remove background noise and quieten the video. The difference is noticeable so I uploaded a video demonstrating the raw audio captured from the camera in comparison to the edited audio.
I used Effect > Noise Removal > Get Sound Profile, Effect > Noise Removal > Okay to do this. I screenshotted the audio tracks to visibly show the difference as well.
Before:
After:
Test Footage - Take Two
15/11/2016
Video Credit: Most of the filming was done by Harrison and Kian, it was edited by Jamie
Here, we just experimented with the camera's focus, movement and attempted to get some basic shots (wide shot, close up, POV etc.) recorded as test footage. The POV shot took multiple takes. At first, it was just going to be a POV shot of a guy opening a door and walking through. Then, we had the idea to transition a tracking shot of the person walking, the camera moving into his head and passing through, sequencing into a first person point of view shot. Once edited, this looked really good and we were pleased with the outcome. It was somewhat inspired by Alfred Hitchcock's "Rope", where the film looks like one long take but there is a hidden cut where the camera moves to an object which blacks the lens out and then moves back and continues the shot as normal, allowing for a seamless transition. We intend to include some POV shots in our trailer as perspective is one of the themes of our film.
Test Footage
Video Credit: We used Jamie's camera to record & Harrison Edited the video
We hoped to obtain final shots of the trunk scene after our test run the other week. We did achieve some impressive shots but they did not meet the standard of quality we were after, as our ISO settings were too low
02/12/2016
Test Footage - Take Five- 15/12/2016 - Mask filters
Video Credit: Aimee recorded this, and worked with Kian and Harrison to make the filters.
We wanted to do similar scenes to the beginnning scenes of Halloween, which are shot in first person through Mike Myer's mask. This was just test footage to see if our first filters were suitable for the camera lens; evidently, some weren't, so we will make more or simply create an image in Photoshop to layer over first person footage.
Test Footage - Tracking Walking Shot
Video Credit: Harrison and Kian Shot this video using Jamie's Google Pixel Phone
Harrison & Jamie had an idea and storyboarded it, hoping to get a portion of the footage completely recorded. We need to refine our filmmaking technique.
We found that this footage was difficult to obtain unprepared on the first test run, and we noticed areas that we can improve in to obtain better quality footage for this shot.
One problem we found is that the ground is too bumpy and makes the camera jitter, resulting in shoddy camera work, despite using the ____ to control the camera. We will either find a flat surface (like card/cardboard) to put ontop of the ground so the camera movement can track Billy's feet smoothly or use a different piece of equipment.
Also, our actor needs to be a fixed distance away from the camera each time, as the shots didn't align well in transitions.
The camera zoom must alo bee on the same setting each time (e.g 50mml etc.)
We will use asotate to mark the frame with where the foot needs to be so the shot lines up perfectly each time
We could also use a metronome app to help with our actor's timing and footstep pace.
Test Footage Playlist
23rd Jan 2017
Here, we have compiled all of our test footage into a playlist, each video containing one or multiple takes of certain shots. We didn't incorporate all of the shots into out final trailer but we learned a great deal in shooting them and lots of shots were improvised.