On the 7th December after school at 3:30 we all met at Leazes Avenue, which is where we filmed the first part of our trailer, with the pan shot of the car driving down the road. We decided to chose this part to film the car shot because it is quiet road where we were able to film the car shot several times without being disturbed by other cars driving down the road. It also allowed Sam (who was driving the car) to drive particularly careful due to the icy conditions.
Filming this shot was particularly easy however we did face a few difficulties, for example we had to re-shoot it several times as we found it particularly hard to move the camera on the tripod smoothly without jolting.
Once we had finished filming the car driving down the road and the girls inside the car, we left Leazes Avenue and moved on to Caterham Valley where the house we are filming in is located. We began by filming the shot of the car entering the house, this shot is acting as the establishing shot of the house, so it was very important that we got it right and made the house appear frightening and isolated. As Charlotte positioned the camera into place, Beth and myself informed the girls on what to do, this included how fast to drive up the driveway, where to park the car and when to begin moving.
We then followed this by taking the long shot of the girls leaving the car and then the conversation between Ellie and Lucy before entering the house. First off all we filmed all four of the girls leaving the car, and made sure that Beth and Sam walked into the house whilst Ellie and Lucy remained by the car. We then ended this shot and followed it with the conversation shots. In order to get the continuity correct we had to break down this shot into three parts. We achieved this by filming a close up shot of Ellie speaking her line, stopped the camera filming, then proceded by moving and filming a close up of Lucy speaking her line. We the stopped filming once again, moved the camera back into its original position of the long shot and filmed the two girls walking into the house. This shot was more difficult then the other shots because we had to ensure that the continuity of the shots worked well and it looked as if the three shots flowed well.
The next shot was located inside the house in the living room where we filmed the ouija board scene. Before we could begin filming the scene it was important that we first off all made sure that the room looked correct for the particular scene that we were shooting for. This meant completely clearing the table where the ouija board would be set and moving back the furniture to allow enough room for all four girls to sit around comfortably. We also needed to include a few props in the shot which included, the fake ouija board that we had made, the bottles of alcohol on the table to make it seem as if the girls had been drinking and four shot glasses which we filled with water to give the illusion of alcohol.
We then began filming the ouija board scene, the first shot that this involved was a crane shot over the top of the girls as they drank the drink in the shot glasses. This particular shot was slightly difficult because we had to hold the camera over the top of the girls, keeping a steady hand whilst filiming the shot glasses coming down and we also had to make sure that the girls brought down their hands at the same time, this is why it took us several takes to get the shot perfect but eventually we were able to do this.
The next scene that we filmed was the girls beginning to play the ouija board. We had to break down this shot into several parts, we began by simply filming th girls pretending the play the ouija board, we then moved onto a close up of Lucy pretending to be possessed by the board. We decided that we would film Lucy becoming possessed in one shot and then when it came to editing we could cut them shorter and place shots of the girls reactions in between them. This meant that we then had to take medium shots of the girls reactions, we began by first taking a shot of Sam and Beth together, then changed positions and took a shot of Ellie's reaction. We told the girls that we wanted them to look frightened and begin edging away from Lucy, we also asked Ellie to add some dialogue into her scene which involved her calling out Lucy's name.
After we had finished filming the other girls reactions we moved the camera back to position we had before when we were filming Lucy being posessed and took the shot of Lucy laughing and telling the others that she was only joking. This was then followed by movie the camera and taking a first shot of Sam and Beth laughing together. Taking this shot proved difficult as the girls found it hard to fake laugh, which meant it took several takes untill we could get a shot worth using in the trailer. The next thing we went on to film was Ellies reaction, which was her being angry and throwing the ouija board off the table. To get the angle right on this shot we had to move to behind where Lucy was sitting and then film Ellie's reaction.
Once we had finished with the ouija board scene we had to continue and take the shot of the phone ringing. As the phone the we are using for the scene is not an actual working phone we had to create the illusion that it does work. We achieved this by finding a ring tone on one of our phones which was just a basic ringing noise and then once we were ready to film the shot we pressed the button on the phone, which made it seem as if the phone was ringing.
The next point in the trailer is the point were the "developing conflict" begins, when the action begins to intensify. For these shots we wanted to firstly begin by taking a shot of Beth running up the stairs as if she was being chased. We achieved this shot by standing at the bottom of the stairs with the camera and panning the camera round as we followed Beth running up the stairs. The next fast shot that we needed was a shot of Sam firstly running into the kitchen, grabbing a knife from a draw and then backing up. In order to achieve this shot successfully we had to split it into three parts, this meant beginning by taking a shot from outsife of the kitchen of sam running into the kitchen. We then had to move and take a close up shot of Sam rumaging through the draw to find the knife, stop filming and then take a shot of her holding the knife and backing up whilst looking frightened.
Once we had finished these two shots, we needed to take the shot of Lucy in the bathroom. We found this shot particularly difficult because it was hard to get the camera in the right position as the bathroom was quite small, it was also difficult trying to get the lighting right and make it look as if the door was being slammed shut. In order to try and get this shot we had the idea to try and have Lucy pushing the door, but making it look as if she was trying to prevent it from being shut. We then had her banging on the door shouting for someone to let her out.
The final shot was of Ellie running in the woods. To get this shot to look its most effective we changed the camera mode to "night time filming" and then wanted to make the camera look as if it was the person chasing the girl. We did have a view difficulties with this shot due to the fact that it was icy, this meant that running was particularly difficult because it was very slipperly and we didnt want anyone to get injured. We then ended the final shot with Ellie falling to the ground and screaming towards the camera.
