On the 27th January we filmed our thriller. Before we got the cameras out and began shooting, we ran through our storyboard to check everything was in order and worked out in our minds how we were going make the opening sequence look on screen. We realised that we had a slight problem of the numbers of people we could get to create a real life news frenzy with the prime minister stepping out of his country retreat because of this problem we decided to scrap this idea in favour of a more intimate feel with him and his wife leaving the retreat alone. We also had the problem of authenticity of the shotgun as it would look unrealistic shooting from afar. Lucky we could mould our thriller so that instead of the long range shot the assain would shot from close up killing the prime Minster that way.
Despite the two minor set backs we were soon up on are feet setting up our location. We found our location well in advanced as it was going to be filmed at our school, This was a good location to film at as it was a beautiful building suitable for a country retreat and as it is a place of such beauty and serenity then I felt it could be a perfect place for a brutal killing such as the one we planned. After we had done this we moved out equipment up to the school we used Sony phd170 cameras these were great as they are semi professional and gave us the professional edge we wanted on our thriller to make it as real as possible. We also moved the tracks up to the school as we were using a tracking shot to reveal the killer with a gun in his hand. We had a problem as there were a number of cars in the car park of the location we were going to shoot in so we had to get them moved as they looked out of place in the scene.
Once we were all set up it was time to beginning shooting I was really looking forward to this as I was participating this for a long time. We began by getting close ups of our assain George Spooner. We got shots from all different angles of his facial expressions and he had an ear plug in as we are going to edit over the top a voice giving him instructions about the task he is about to follow. We also got shots of his hand and I ask him to curl up his fingers to give him more of a creepy feel to it. Also we repeated these shots with a shaky camera to give a disjointed feel to the scene and would give the audience a insight into the mad brain of the assassin. We got close up of the gun as well to give emphasis that something’s about to happen. We also used a technique we learnt from out teacher of focus pull where it would create the effect of the house and the gun going in and out of focus. We decided to dress our assain in a suit and picked George Spooner as we wanted someone who looked inconspicuous. We got him to hold an authentic gun which would add a real life quality and knew if the gun didn’t look real then it would ruin the whole thing.
After we had these shots of George Spooner it was time to call out our other two main actors. Jason and his Wife Nikki played the roles of prime minister and his wife, We cast these two in the roles because there were around the same age of the character we want to portray and Jason had a leader quality to him, also his wife Nicky playing opposite him would offer us real life chemistry which we wouldn’t be able to get otherwise. Once we had the actors in place we got them to leave from the main entrance to our school while from behind the assassin George Spooner we set up a tracking shot which would which would show the gun in Georges hand and then reveal Jason and Nikki Leaving from the man house in slow motion, We decided to show Jason and Nikki in slow motion as it would look like a bit of calm before the storm and that they would look important and would emphasis there appearance in the scene. We took many shots of this as it was a complex shot with us having to time the movement of the camera to perfection. This was a complex task and took a number of practice shots.
Once we had got those shots we moved closer to Jason and Nikki these were close ups and mid shots we got a repertoire of these which we could use in editing again these were in slow motion to build suspense. Once we had these shot we go them as there were walking and moving to the car. Once we got these important shots it was time to get the hardest shot of them all a walking camera shot following George Spooner the assassin as he walked towards Jason and shot him, We had to use a hand held camera and moved as he did and once he had shot Jason turn the gun on himself and as he fell to the ground the camera went with him to the ground. This was very complex to do and took a number of attempts to do it, But once we got it right it was a great success and looked brilliant because it gave it a realistic feel to our thriller and it would top it off nicely.
Overall I really enjoyed the whole process of making my Thriller injustice; it was great choosing different cast members, Picking the right location and getting the mood that we wanted to create on camera. So it was a challenge but a good one. I really enjoyed the hands on experience that goes into making a successful sequence and capturing it on camera with using the different shots we leant in pervious weeks and putting them into action by ourselves in our own production which was fantastic and I am now looking forward to edit it and really capture the mood and create a successful opening sequence to a thriller.
